Citizenship scheme creates new class of priority migrants

Human rights foundation Aditus says IIP sends message that migrants living and working in Malta will not be granted citizenship for their contributions

15 November 2013, 12:00am
by Matthew Vella

2 min read

Aditus director Neil Falzon:

A human rights NGO has pointed out the discrimination at play when citizenship-by-investment schemes are enacted without proper rights for migrants and refugees living and working in Malta.

Aditus director Neil Falzon said today the Individual Investor Programme, that will offer a fast-track naturalisation for €650,000, said the new amendments to the Maltese Citizenship Act were reinforcing a "negative message to migrant and refugee communities living in Malta."

Falzon said that as a human rights NGO, aditus foundation would not assess the desirability or otherwise of the citizenship scheme. "We have intentionally refrained for issuing a public statement in view of the highly politicised tone of the relevant discussions...

"This is not our remit [but] the new scheme further emphasizes the 'unworthiness' of migrants and refugees who, for years, have been contributing to Maltese society in several ways by paying taxes and social security contributions, being employed in Maltese companies, establishing their own business ventures, engaging in social activities with Maltese people and generally doing their utmost to integrate into what is, ultimately, an extremely challenging environment for them to integrate in," Falzon said.

"By exclusively emphasising financial contributions of migrants, the government directly informs all these migrants and refugees that Malta is not and will probably never be a place they can call home."

The naturalization of migrants in Malta remains at the discretion of the minister for home affairs, irrespectively of their duration or affinity with Maltese society.

"We are also concerned at the lack of procedural transparency in the application and review process, and it consequential potential lack of procedural guarantees," Falzon said of the IIP, which will not be publishing names of those awarded citizenship against a €650,000 donation.

"Malta's citizenship legislation is already based on blatant arbitrariness, with full discretion in the hands of the Minister for Home Affairs and National Security and no effective remedies available to migrants whose citizenship applications are rejected. We feel that placing this new procedure in the hands of a private company merely further emphasizes this absence of transparency and accountability," Falzon said, referring to exclusive concessionaire Henley & Partners, which will promote the scheme and carry out due diligence on applicants.

Falzon also said Malta has consistently refused to sign and ratify the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. "We are concerned at statements relating to the withdrawal of legitimately granted citizenship as such actions, especially where politically-motivated and outside any objective legal regime, could lead to individuals and families being stateless, lacking the protection of any state."

Matthew Vella, a freelance journalist at MaltaToday, was formerly executive editor at Malt...

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The undesired, illegal migrants can take their taxes and social contributions to their countries of origin and quit Malta asap. We do not need their taxes and social security contributions. They can pay them in their own countries and help build the economies in Africa. By going to Europe, they are not solving anything in their own countries but only helping to perpetuate the status quo.

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My friend, if you don't like it and don't agree, you either pay for them or take them home, simple as that.

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The illigal emigrants are contributing to our evonomy? You must be joking.

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U min meta l'hawn Non Governmental Organization li fiha tuzzana nies saret tiddetta x'ghandu jaghmel il- Gvern li gie ivvotat mill-maggoranza tal-poplu b'maggoranza kbira? Jien, isem din l-NGO qatt ma sibta fuq id-dokument tal-vot, ma nafx min huma, ma nafx minn fejn jithallsu u ma nafx jekk humiex Maltin jew barranin. Ikatar hemm informazzjoni fuq din l-individual investment scheme mill fuq din l-NGO. Bhala cittadin,ghadhi dritt inkun naf min huma dawn in-nies please?

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Mam,a mioa x'tahrakom qalbkom ghal-emigranti. Naf li numru minnhomintegraw ruhom mal-Maltin. Naf ukoll lòi numru minnhom hallsu l-flus biex taparsi jizzewgu Malta billi jsibu taparsi gharus/a. Naf li uhud minnhon wara li izzewgu bdew jikkalpestaw lin-nisa taghhom. Naf li uhud hadu xoghol lill Maltin, mela ma nafux. Nafu li ahna wehidfna ahna overpopulated x'jonqos li jsir. Nafu li mhux l-NGO's mhux kollha NGO's. Halluna tridu kif faqqastu f'daqqa bhal fi zmien it-tmeninijiet.

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what a load of crap.

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Jien ma naqbel xejn li kull min jizzewwg Malti jew Maltija ikollu d-dritt ghal passaport Malti. Dawn l-anqas biss ikunu screened ghal kondotta taghhom.

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Sakemm ma 'jhallus' ghal zwieg bla ebda valur jew rabta hlief ghal skop biex tinkiseb cittadinanza u jinholoq aktar pis fuq is sevizzi socjali, altru milli jhallu l flus fil kaxxa ta Malta dawn in nies Sur Falzon. Wahda cittadinanza irhisa u bla valur l ohra cittadinanza oghlja u b hafna valur l

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Mr Falzon,the world changed a lot since 1954,i'am pleased that our leaders refused to sign this convention.

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Falzon, it is neither you nor the NGO's who defend illegal immigrants against the interests of Malta and the Maltese people and those who come here illegally who decide whom we allow to live and work here. Those in the IIP scheme pay for their citizenship unlike those who come here illegally and expect us to keep them and give them anything they want. No way Falzon. We decide not you.

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Mr Falzon anyone of the illegal immigrants can always buy their Maltese citizenship by investing 650,000 thousand euros. Why should the government discriminate against those who have money? All the illegal immigrants have to do is force themselves on us for five years and they get to earn one of our Maltese passports for free. I think that our Nationality and our Livelihood should not be sold or given away to anybody for any price. I am sure you are making a good living being in charge of Aditus at the expense of these illegal immigrants. Other NGOs are doing the same thing. Like you, Mr Falzon that is why Henley and Pardners are pushing for the sale of our passports because in the long run it all comes down to a matter of money.

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Migration always produces a new category of citizens within the social fabric. So far in Malta, this has been overlooked by the political class as long as these citizens voting weight remain scattered. But with a small electorate and a political system where an election can be easily won with a handful of votes, even a modest canalisation of these votes will draw the attention of the politicians. Time will tell.