The rights and interests of Maltese emigrants will be discussed at the third Convention of Maltese Living Abroad which will be hosted by the Foreign Ministry in March.
Foreign Minister Tonio Borg said today that the three-day-conference would discuss the progress and developments registered during the last convention ten years ago as regards protection of the rights and interests of Maltese living abroad. It should also serve as a spring board for initiatives for the future.
The minister said that a considerable number of ideas and suggestions had been put forward by organisations and associations representing Maltese abroad. The organising committee would be giving due importance to participation by youths in order to secure a convention which looked not only to the past and the present but also to the future.
He pointed out that liberalisation of the nationality law had guaranteed access to Maltese citizenship to any person, wherever he was born, who could prove a relationship in the direct line with any person of Maltese nationality born in Malta.
The focus now was on education and learning.
“We should strive to enhance and expand the teaching of the Maltese language abroad, as well as instruction in Maltese history and the peculiarities, traditions and folklore of our nation,” the minister said.
This will be the third Convention for the Maltese living abroad. The first was held in 1969 and the second in 2000
www.foreign.gov.mt/convention