This is Home
The “This is Home” campaign is dedicated to shedding light on the challenges faced by undocumented migrants in Malta. Despite their crucial role in the workforce and society, these individuals are excluded from basic rights and protections that most take for granted. From healthcare to education, housing to family life, undocumented migrants in Malta face systemic barriers that limit their opportunities for a secure and dignified future. Our campaign aims to raise awareness and advocate for regularization pathways that recognize these individuals as full members of society, capable of contributing and thriving.
Documentation
Migrants who are in an irregular situation in Malta face the impossibility of obtaining a residence permit in order to regularise themselves even if they have found employment. It is not that they don’t want to, its just that they can’t!
Furthermore, due to the particular situation of Malta many of them cannot renew their original expired passports from their country of origin due to the fact that many times there is no consular representation in Malta.
There is currently no regularisation programme in Malta for long-staying undocumented migrants or their children.
Healthcare
In Malta, undocumented migrants only have limited access to healthcare. They often do not receive adequate medical care since they are only entitled to receive emergency medical services, and this only applies to those who are working with the yellow book.
Those who do not or cannot work do not pay national insurance and therefore cannot benefit from the national healthcare system. Undocumented women and their children, who are not in possession of the yellow book, do not have the right to ante-natal and post-natal maternity care.
The uncertainty of their residence status makes it difficult for undocumented migrants, from birth to old age, to receive preventative and long-term medical care. Should they need any medical care, medicine or surgery they will be issued by a medical bills running into the hundreds and thousands.
Education
Access to education for undocumented migrants in Malta is extremely problematic and the regulation of such access is unclear. Migrant children often face difficulties enrolling in schools because either they, or one of their parents, lack official documentation.
The barring of compulsory age students from schools breaches the child’s right to an education which is recognised by the Maltese Constitution. Additionaly, many migrants are excluded from higher educational institutions, such as MCAST and University due to their irregular status.
This creates a general lack of opportunity and future prospects, especially for younger migrants. Imagine that, having arrived as a child or being born in Malta and not being able to study, to train to meet other children your own age!
Employment & Workers Rights
In Malta, undocumented migrants can work legally if they hold a yellow book which provides a temporary work permit renewable every three months. However, not every irregular migrant is issued with a yellow book, as the granting of the book is based on ambiguous unwritten policies.
Although the book allows some migrants to work and contribute to taxes and social security, the yellow book offers no long-term security or social benefits, like unemployment benefits, pensions and the like. Holders must renew the documents every three months which is a huge bureaucratic burden for both the employer and the employee.
Despite paying into the system, they have no social benefits nor long-term job stability, and their hopes for a secure future often remain unfulfilled. Migrants with no documents at all are not allowed to work legally and face years of exploitation in the workplace.
The irony is that Malta is in need of extra hands on the labour market due to severe worker shortages.
Housing
The housing situation for undocumented migrants in Malta is precarious. They have no access to public housing programs and must rely on expensive and insecure private accommodation.
Furthermore, without legal recognition, securing long-term rental agreements is nearly impossible. This increases their risk of homelessness and forces many to live in substandard conditions, to squat in vacant and unsanitary buildings or to sleep rough in public garden or fields, what makes them vulnerable to being victims of theft, personal and sexual violence.
Social Security & Welfare
Social welfare is inaccessible to undocumented migrants in Malta. Although those who are in possession of the yellow book pay annual taxes and monthly social security contributions into the Maltese system, they receive no support in cases of unemployment, illness, disability, old age or maternity.
This exclusion from social protection increases their economic and social vulnerability, leaving many destitute with nowhere to turn to.
Family
All irregular migrants in Malta are prohibited from marrying, as government policy dictates that in order for the marriage banns to be issued a person must show regular residency status either in Malta or in another country.
This creates barriers for them to create a family unit, especially for those who have children in Malta, as all the rights and obligations pertaining to married couples are excluded.
The inability to marry leads to long-term exclusion and hinders the integration of migrant families into society. It goes without saying that irregular migrants in Malta cannot bring their family over to Malta and many spend decades without seeing their spouses or children left back home in their country of origin.
Freedom of Movement
Undocumented migrants in Malta have highly restricted freedom of movement. Traveling within the EU or to other countries is impossible for them, as they lack valid travel documents to leave and to re-enter.
There is always the risk of detention and deportation if they attempt to cross borders. This uncertainty severely limits their personal freedom and impedes their ability to fully integrate into society.
