maltacampaign2017

100 signatures to our petition…keep them coming!

Today we hit 100 signatures on our ‘This is Home’ petition! The petition urges the Prime Minister to:

Establish a legal pathway to regularisation for all rejected asylum seekers who have lived in Malta for 5 years or more and have not been returned to their country through no fault of their own.
Ensure that the criteria for qualification for regularisation are clear and public and not based only on proof of employment and self‐sufficiency, but take all an individual’s integration efforts and links to Malta into account.
Draw up legal rules to regulate both the application and the decision‐making procedure, which provide adequate guarantees of fairness, independence and impartiality.
Grant clear legal rights to those who qualify for regularisation, as well as to those who today benefit from THPN, which will allow them to live with dignity and to work towards more permanent forms of status, such as long‐term residence, in Malta.
Make sure that, whatever the changes to the procedure for renewal, there is no reduction in the rights and benefits of those who today enjoy THPN.

Have you and all your colleagues signed it yet?? Have you circulated it within your networks, and on social media??

Here’s the link, GO ON AND SHARE:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Prime_Minister_of_Malta_This_is_Home/?cTlHGmb

Meeting the Minister to talk about ‘This is Home’!

Dear campaign followers,

We’re happy to announce that, following the successful launch of the ‘This is Home’ campaign, the Ministry for Home Affairs and National Security has requested a meeting with us in order to discuss our objectives and specific campaign elements.

Representatives from the three leading NGOs (aditus foundation, Integra Foundation and JRS Malta) will be present at the meeting later this week, and we’ll zoom in to very specific recommendations and highlight our concerns.

For the campaign, this is an excellent opportunity to have a direct conversation with the entity that can actually make a difference. It’s great that the Ministry got in touch with us right away!

We’ll keep you updated on our progress…wish us luck!

This Is Home

Malta, you are a beautiful island in the Mediterranean, with your rich history of hospitality – People of Malta, open your hearts to me. Look, I have so much to give: I am a student, a worker, a mother, a father, a friend. I have lived on your shores for seven, eight, nine, twelve years. I know your streets, I know your seasons. I understand your way of life: it has become part of me. My past is gone, I don’t want to remember what is finished. I want to talk about my present, about my future. And yet, I cannot force you to love me, even though I wish to stay on these beautiful islands, if only you open your hearts to me.

Malta, you have given me peace and security. I would like to continue to live here: let me continue to live here, this is home for me. I love Mellieha and going to the beach with my friends in summer, I love Valletta and having a coffee with my mates there. I love Buskett, Gozo, the gardens that you have – Upper Barakka gardens, the Chinese Garden. They are so beautiful.

I desire the freedom to hope and to dream. Offer me a legal pathway for me to stay, that I may have ground on which to build my life, to live and to thrive with you. I understand that this is a complex matter. You may believe that I am not deserving of this, but look, my life is here now and it is beautiful: the friends I have, the hospitality that the Maltese people offer me.

I want to be with you, because like you I believe in freedom, in the full respect of fundamental human rights. I am a Christian, a Muslim, a non-believer. I am someone who doubts my faith because of the violence I experienced in my country of origin. Of course, I love my country of origin, but I have a new home now: my home is here. With you I want to work to make this country even more beautiful. I also want to remind you how important it is to work for peace, the full respect for fundamental human rights and safeguarding democracy. I know what life is like when these are lacking.

I ask you to allow me to stay, but I also ask you to talk to me, to get to know me, because I do want a legal document that gives me the right to stay. I want to work with you to find solutions for the challenges countries are facing, that result in the mass displacement of people.

I love Malta, because I found a life here. I offer you my friendship and somewhere in my own heart I know, Malta also loves me.