Abusive employers fire third-country nationals to get them deported

Abusive employers are firing third-country national employees without informing them, so they end up being deported, a human rights lawyer told parliament.

“After months of abusing a worker, an employer informs the authorities that the worker is being dismissed – without telling the employee that he no longer has a job,” Neil Falzon of the Aditus Foundation said.

“And if a TCN doesn’t have a job in Malta, they become illegal are sent to a detention centre before being sent back home.”

Falzon was giving his testimony in front of parliament’s social affairs committee when he called for more protection for foreign workers in Malta.

It is the latest statement chronicling abuse among employers where TCNs live in fear of deportation, which discourages them from reporting abuses.

One TCN worker, who asked not to be named, said he had been forced to leave Malta after unknowingly overstaying his visa because of the practice. 

He said he had worked for his employer until the start of May, but when he received a termination letter from Jobsplus later that month, his termination date was registered as the middle of April, meaning he had already overstayed past the 10 days to find new work.

He added that he had paid an agency some €5,000 to come to Malta but had been forced to leave after less than two years.

Another showed Times of Malta an email from Jobsplus at the end of October saying his contract had been terminated due to resignation at the end of September, despite still working for his employer at the time of receiving the email. He has since found alternative employment. 

Contacted for comment, Falzon said the practice shows that many see the foreign workforce as “dispensable”.

“These are sometimes cases where an employee complains about conditions or asks for a raise, and the employer decides to fire the worker without informing them, out of pure spite,” he said.

In front of the social affairs committee, Falzon said that Malta’s single work permit system means that TCNs rely on being employed to retain legal status in Malta.

“That means that employees are dependent on their employer. We get a lot of situations where there is clear abuse, but that person refuses to go to the DIER (Department for Industrial and Employment Relations) or any other authority out of fear of losing their job.”

He said Identità’s policy of giving TCNs 10 days to find alternative employment before they are kicked out of Malta is too short and encourages employer abuse.

Falzon said that even the government’s plan to extend that period to 30 days is not enough, especially for victims of trafficking.

“That period should be three months. If someone is a victim of trafficking, they need to adjust and recover, maybe receive therapy and acquire new skills before finding work,” he said.

The social affairs committee was discussing the US government’s 2024 report on Malta’s human trafficking situation when Falzon was asked to testify.

Earlier this year, the Anti-Poverty Forum suggested that workers from outside the EU should be given up to 90 days to find a new job.

The current grace period for TCNs to find work is just 10 days, with the government proposing this be increased to 60 days

In November, a parliamentary petition was lodged calling for an increase in the number of days granted to TCNs to find alternative employment. 

Indian national Dilraj Panakkal Bhasi, who lodged the petition, told Times of Malta “a lot of people are facing this issue”.

Stressing that finding employment within the hospitality sector – known to employ a high proportion of TCN workers – during off-peak seasons was “especially difficult”, Bhasi – an administrator and formerly a practising lawyer in his native India – said he received “a lot of calls for advice about this”.