Migrant workers in Malta are vulnerable to conditions that amount to forced labour, a report on freedom has concluded.

Migrant workers are more vulnerable to conditions that amount to forced labour, researchers say. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

Published as part of the annual review by Washington-based democracy monitor, Freedom House, which issued its freedom ranking in February and a more in-depth country-specific report this month, the review showed that unlike other residents, migrants were more vulnerable to such exploitation.

“Residents generally enjoy fair access to economic opportunity and protection from labour exploitation, though migrant workers in particular are vulnerable to labour and sex trafficking or conditions that amount to forced labour,” the researchers noted.

According to Freedom House, which in its annual ranking downgraded Malta’s freedom score to 91 out of 100, Malta’s score for “safeguards against official corruption” was found to have gone down as a result of the “inefficacy of the country’s anti-corruption institutions”.

“The score declined from three to two (out of four) due the inefficacy of the country’s anti-corruption institutions in investigating the myriad corruption scandals that have emerged from the Panama Papers and other sources,” researchers noted in the country-specific report published recently.

The country’s score has been on a downward trend for the past couple of years, dropping to 92 points in 2018 from 96 in the previous year.

Thirty-five countries obtained better scores than Malta and another five – Costa Rica, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, St Vincent and Grenadines and Bahamas – were awarded the same points.

On the rule of law, the monitor’s researchers noted that the creating of a Judicial Appointments Committee (JAC) in 2016, set up to evaluate candidates for the judiciary, the Prime Minister still maintained considerable power over judicial appointments.

Residents generally enjoy fair access to economic opportunity

In its report on Malta, the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission, Europe’s highest constitutional body, had recently also recommended that “the Prime Minister should not have the power to influence the appointment of the judiciary”.

Moving on to “personal autonomy and individual rights”, the researchers also noted that “domestic violence remains a problem despite government efforts to combat it”.

First published in 1973, the ranking, considered a world institution in the sector, provides a tracking of global freedom trends.

Freedom House says its ranking is often cited by academics, journalists, activists and even policymakers.

claire.caruana@timesofmalta.com