Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/608340
14 NAVIGATING the structures of Malta's various government depart- ments can be a bit of a labyrinthine experience. No matter the issue, there will always be a number of departments involved: the plan- ning authority, transport authority, health and safety commission, VAT department, etc. etc. Imagine, then, the headaches in store for those responsible for co-ordinating different govern- ment departments for a common purpose. I was about to start this interview by congratulating Silvan Agius on his recent appointment as director of the newly set up Human Rights and Integration Directorate, within the Ministry of Social Policy and Consumer Affairs. But then he told me what his job will actually entail… and it sounds to me more like a case for condo- lences. In a nutshell, this directorate aims to streamline the functions of all government departments involved in both human rights, and integra- tion policy: both of which involve an entire panoply of issues which are currently handled by literally dozens of different entities and in- stitutions. But let's start with human rights. Before coming to the Ministry of Social Policy in Valletta, I looked up a few cases in which Malta had been found guilty by the European Court. At a glance, the overwhelming ma- jority involved issues such as arrest and detention (eg, lack of access to legal aid), and land expropriation disputes. How would the new Human Rights directorate deal with those two issues… when the former is the province of the Police (suppos- edly autonomous of government, though answerable to the Home Affairs Ministry) and the latter is handled by the Lands Department? Silvan Agius begins by pointing out that it is still too early to know for sure, as the directorate itself has yet to be formally ratified. But he also points out that its remit will not be to deal with individual cases dealt with by the law courts. "When this directorate was conceived, it was not necessarily thought out to solve all kinds of hu- man rights issues. That is not to say that when issues like this emerge, we will not be involved. But we still have to go through the entire proc- ess: a White Paper was published last year, there will be public con- sultation; a new Equality Act will be adopted, and a new Human Rights Commission will be set up to replace the outgoing National Commis- sion for the promotion of Equality. There will, in brief, be a new human rights institution, along similar lines to the office of the Ombudsman. Not Constitutionally autonomous, but falling under Parliament…" This directorate, then, is filling a gap brought about by the disman- tling of previous institutions in preparation for the new commis- sion. "But in any case, the gap already existed," Agius continues. "There was always a need for this directo- rate to be set up, precisely because of the way the government has in- cluded equality, non-discrimination and migrant integration within this ministry's remit. None of those re- ally fell into the remit of any dedi- cated directorates before. If you look at consumer affairs, by way of contrast, there is an institution spe- cifically for that. Health and safety regulations are another example. But if you look at equality, and espe- cially integration, there was no unit specifically for that..." Coming back to police detention and property rights, Agius admits these are not top priority for the di- rectorate. "I don't think these will be the first areas we will be dealing with. But it will be our role to look into these issues, and to draw up possi- ble courses of action. We can't tell the police what to do; but we can work with the police, and ensure that they have what is needed. Our role is to liaise with different gov- ernment departments, and assist with the development of policy and procedures that may be lacking or inadequate…" Yet these two issues constitute the bulk of Malta's human rights viola- tions. If they are not priority, what is? "At the moment, our top prior- ity is to draw up a national strategy for migrant integration," he replies without any hesitation. "We're working on it already with differ- ent institutions. Just before this interview we had a meeting with the Employment and Training Cor- poration, to discuss things like em- ployment conditions; eligibility or otherwise to work in Malta; the dif- ferent statuses, and what they mean for permits, etc. After this we have a meeting related to lifelong learn- ing…" Agius contends that the need for co-ordination among different de- partments is much more keenly felt when it comes to integrating migrants. He acknowledges it is a difficult topic to discuss… largely because not everyone necessarily uses the word to refer to the same thing. "By integration we don't only mean integration of migrants… al- though that's a large part of it. But there are other communities that are in a sense marginalised, or not fully included. We hope to reach a stage when the word 'intergration' is used to refer to all categories, not just foreigners. All the same, migrant integration is a priority, because there are so many related issues…" Even within the context of for- eigners residing in Malta, the word is still frustratingly misused to only refer to asylum seekers. From Agius' experience, however, this category accounts for only a small part of the broader migration picture. "By migrants we also mean EU na- tionals. While they may have fewer problems, there are still problems we are aware of. One issue that crops up frequently concerns edu- cation. Just to mention one category – though it applies to others – Ital- ian migrants are, of course, not well versed in Maltese, and have diffi- culties also with English. Now, the languages of instruction in Malta are Maltese and English. So if you are unable to speak either, then you have a serious problem fitting into the Maltese school system. The number of Italians in Malta has in- creased significantly. That's not an issue related to boat arrivals, but it's still an integration issue for us…" Another way in which the word is often misinterpreted is a tendency to shift the responsibility for 'in- tegration' fully onto the migrants themselves. "For us, 'integration doesn't only mean others integrating with our way of life. We also have to have the structures to accommodate them. Sticking to the earlier example: what it means in practice is that the Ministry of Education has to find a way to provide additional language courses for these children, without disrupting the education system too much. I mention this example because it's not the typical issue people would think of when talking about integration…" Matters are not helped by the fact that, in many cases, the differ- ent departments were themselves speaking different languages (so to speak). "One of the biggest problems is that there is no single national ap- proach governing all the different departments. One director might consider Maltese language-learning is the most important thing; some- one else, however, may be asking English language proficiency. It's just a hypothetical example, but things like this do happen. If there is no co-ordination between de- partments, different directors will establish their own procedures…" How are these issues identified to begin with? Most, Agius explains, will be brought up as complaints by the migrants themselves at the recently formed 'Forum for Integra- tion Affairs'. "On that forum there are repre- sentatives of various communities present in Malta – usually commu- nity leaders of the different organi- sations: for example, the Somalis in Malta, or the Russians, Moroccans, you name it. They come round the table to discuss issues of common concern. One issue that emerged as a collective concern relates to the acquisition of residence docu- ments. We are already looking into this. Another issue, affecting all categories, relates to employment. A third point that has emerged is the recognition of foreign qualifica- tions. I must add, however, that the fact that many communities have concerns in common doesn't auto- matically make them right. Some- times there are reasons why, for in- stance, a permit takes a long time to be issued. I'm just pointing out the complaints, not commenting about whether they're right or wrong…" Still, the directorate he heads will also have to address those com- plaints. At this stage, this involves meeting with communities repre- sentatives, then organising separate meetings with the various govern- ment departments involved in any given issue. "You could say we are acting on the migrants' behalf; but ideally we hope to eventually reduce this role, and instead bring the institutions directly to the forum table: so there will be a face to face conversation about the issues. For example, be- tween ETC officials, and the forum for integration affairs itself. So far, this has not happened." Meanwhile, it seems the problems flagged by migrants are not neces- sarily what most would imagine. "One thing that did not come across as a major concern – which is very interesting, when one reads comments on various online news- papers – was the issue of individual antagonism towards migrants from 'the man in the street'. I'm not say- ing it isn't an issue; but it is not raised as a concern at the integra- tion forum. What I've been told my- self during meetings is that: 'It does happen, but it's not that frequent, and it's not the sort of thing I worry about'. Most tell me that the vast majority of Maltese are hospitable. We were quite surprised, in fact. It was one of the things we wanted to know about…" What about antagonism towards Interview By Raphael Vassallo maltatoday, SUNDAY, 29 NOVEMBER 2015 Failure to integrate The thing to bear in mind is that the opposite of integration is not 'migrants going back to their country'. It's ghettoes… it's problems relating to people not fitting in GHETTOISATION I'm not saying it will be easy. I'm not painting some migrant integration Utopia that will not encounter difficulties. I wouldn't, however, argue that it's too late… INTEGRATION 14 Interview