Trump administration halts relocation of refugees currently in Malta

The programme which would have relocated refugees from Malta to the United States has come to a halt under the current US administration, Home Affairs Minister Michael Farrugia has confirmed.

Farrugia said that the number of irregular migrants and persons with international protection between 2016 and 2017 amounted to 1,605.

However, this programme is currently suspended due to a unilateral decision by US President Donald Trump to put an end to the US Refugee Admissions Programme and ban refugees from specific countries indefinitely.

Responding a parliamentary question by PN MP Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici, Farrugia further specified that 1,185 persons with international protection granted to them in Malta were relocated between 2015 and 2017.

Only four of these were relocated to Canada, while the the rest were transferred to the US before the programme was suspended.

No persons were relocated in 2018 so far.

At the beginning of last year, Trump said he will be “establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America. We only want to admit those in our country who will support our country and love deeply our people.”