Only €50,000 paid by Malta to Africa Trust Fund

Foreign affairs minister George Vella has confirmed with MaltaToday that Malta has so far contributed just €50,000 to an emergency trust fund for Africa that was launched at last year’s Valletta Summit between European and African leaders.

Despite Muscat hailing the Valletta Summit as a “milestone” and a government-commissioned study indicating that the summit and the CHOGM earned the country an equivalent of €550 million worth of publicity, Malta only contributed €250,000 to the fund – less than half the amount it earns through the sale of one “golden passport”. Vella said that Malta will pay the remaining €200,000 to the fund in separate €50,000 tranches over the next four years.

The fund is intended to support economic growth and security and to address human rights abuses on the continent, so as to stymie migration of African citizens to Europe.

In total, €1.88 billion has been allocated to the trust fund, with €1.8 billion coming from EU institutions and the remaining €1.8 million from 25 EU member states, along with Norway and Switzerland.

The Netherlands was the most generous of the member states, pledging €15 million to the fund, followed by Italy which pledged €10 million, and Finland which pledged €5 million.

A European Commission spokesperson told MaltaToday that €900 million have already been approved to fund specific programmes in favour of the Sahel region and Lake Chad basin, and the Horn of Africa and North Africa regions.

Slow relocation

Malta has so far only relocated 50 refugees from Italy and Greece out of the 131 it had pledged to take in last year.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has repeatedly said that Malta’s participation in the EU’s relocation scheme is a sign of the island’s willingness to lead by example in its conviction that countries should show solidarity with their migrant-burdened neighbours.

However, EU figures released on Thursday show that Malta has only accepted 50 refugees from the two burdened countries, with the latest nine arriving last week. This is despite Malta seeing its intake of asylum seekers plummet at a time when migration flows to Europe have reached levels unseen on the continent since World War II.

“The relocation of asylum seekers to Malta requires the referral of persons by Greece and Italy,” home affairs minister Carmelo Abela told MaltaToday. “It bears noting that the programme is proceeding according to schedule and that it is anticipated that it would be completed by September 2017, as stipulated by the relevant Council decisions.”

In September last year, EU member states agreed to relocate 160,000 asylum seekers and refugees from Italy and Greece, in a move that Muscat had hailed as a major breakthrough.

“Those against such quotas are not seeing beyond the tips of their noses. If we say ‘no’ to the redistribution of asylum seekers to our own country, the EU will criticise us for wanting solidarity only when it suits us, and not because we believe in it. And if you believe in solidarity you have to work for it,” Muscat had said.

Yet the take-up of the scheme has proven sluggish, and indeed only 4,439 refugees have been relocated so far, a miserable 4.5% of the pledged number. Austria, Poland and Hungary have not accepted a single refugee amongst themselves, and the latter is set to hold a referendum on the resettlement scheme in October.

Malta has taken in 38.17% of the asylum seekers it had pledged to relocate from Italy and Greece back in September, meaning that it is closer to fulfilling its set quota than any other EU country.

However, unlike most other EU countries, Malta has not been affected by the migration crisis – that saw over a million refugees claim asylum in Europe last year and over 240,000 people did the same in the first quarter of this year.

Indeed, since Italy started taking in all immigrants crossing from Libya – including those found in Maltese waters – the number of asylum seekers has plummeted dramatically. Only 94 asylum seekers arrived on Malta’s shores in 2015, a far cry from the thousands it used to receive in previous years. 

At the same time, the Maltese economy grew at a higher pace than most Eurozone countries and unemployment has sunk to a record low of 4%, lower than that of any EU country. Indeed, more than half of new jobs on the island are now being taken up by foreigners.

Since the beginning of the year, over 163,000 asylum seekers have arrived in Greece and 100,000 in Italy. Greek migration minister Yannis Mouzalas said last week that 7,000 people are currently awaiting relocation in the country, but that it is not receiving any answers from EU member states obliged to accept them.

Italian interior minister Angelino Alfano said that Germany has pledged to take in “hundreds of refugees” each month in an effort to save the scheme and urged other EU leaders to follow Germany’s lead. He praised Chancellor Angela Merkel for wanting to be on the “right side of history” – by welcoming over a million refugees last year, even if it might cost her votes.

“If Germany also takes in some of our [refugees]… then the message will be extremely strong, because if Germany can do it, then so can all those who have not put in the huge effort Germany already has.”