It is now 50 years since Malta signed the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention, on June 17, 1971 and 20 years since Malta’s Refugee Commission came into being on June 18, 2001.

It is therefore befitting to take the opportunity of World Refugee Day 2021, today, June 20, to go a bit down memory lane regarding Malta’s post-war refugee experience.

From 1973, asylum-seeker cases in Malta used to be handled by the Emigrants’ Commission, led by Mgr Philip Calleja, through the commission’s healthy connections with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Then, on December 2, 1987, the Emigrants’ Commission was appointed the UNHCR’s Operational Partner in Malta.

The commission established a refugee section and I was asked to lead it. I was trained by UNHCR to start interviewing asylum seekers in Malta on the organisation’s behalf and to coordinate with seasoned officials at UNHCR’s branch office in Rome for final determination of the applications. 

As time went by, asylum- seeker cases continued to pick up momentum in Malta and the need started to be felt for the country to have its own national refugee status determination structure.

Following long and widespread consultations, on December 29, 1999, the Maltese government published Bill No. 46 entitled ‘An Act to make provisions relating to and establishing procedures with regard to refugees and asylum seekers’.

The bill passed through all its parliamentary stages in 2000. 

The Refugees Act stated, among other things, that there should be a refugee commissioner.

In the third quarter of 2000, I was asked to set up the Office of the Refugee Commissioner and be Malta’s first refugee commissioner. After seeking and getting the advice of some knowledgeable friends in the field, including high-profile UNHCR officials whom I had worked a lot with and who encouraged me to accept the responsibility and promised me their professional support, I assented to serve.

It was the moment when I had to step out of my role as head of the refugee section of the Emigrants’ Commission after 13 years of hard work, shoulder to shoulder with Mgr Calleja, among and for several hundreds of people, in very demanding circumstances. 

At first, I was appointed refugee commissioner designate.

After months of planning, mainly with experienced civil servants who were more than ready to share their expertise and know-how with me, as well as with capable and very cooperative UNHCR people who also led a three-day training seminar for all key players in the putting into effect of the Refugees Act, the Office of the Refugee Commissioner opened its doors on June 18, 2001.

In 2002, the number of boat people reaching Malta exploded to 1,686- Charles Buttigieg

We started with just five persons, four of whom had absolutely no previous experience in refugee protection. At that time, the average yearly number of asylum applications in Malta used to be in the region of 150.

Apart from people seeking refugee protection while already on the island, the 1998 boat-people caseload was 166; in 1999 it rose to 219; in 2000 it was just 24; and in 2001 their number was 57.

The fundamental objective of the office was clear from the very beginning:  to ensure a totally independent, fair, efficient, credible and swift eligibility determination process while, at the same time, guaranteeing the best possible quality regarding the hearing, analysis and determination of applications.

Mgr Philip Calleja, president of the Emigrants' Commission (third from right) and Mohamed Benamar, the UNHCR's delegate in Italy, signing the December 2, 1987 agreement through which the UNHCR appointed the Emigrants' Commission as its operational partner in Malta.

A baptism of fire was awaiting us. In 2002, the number of boat people reaching Malta exploded to 1,686. We immediately embarked on a project to increase the staff complement and provide them with the necessary training. Meanwhile, the organisation of interviews had, in itself, its own particular difficulties because we had to interview boat people at their place of detention, with all the time-consuming complications this used to create, also to get on the spot interpreters whose availability was very scarce at the time.

The hill the office had to climb was steep, very steep. 

At the time of the discussions leading to Malta’s accession to the EU, the Office of the Refugee Commissioner had to show and prove to EU missions that Malta’s asylum structure met all EU requirements. We prepared ourselves. It was truly encouraging to be informed that we passed the tests with flying colours. 

In October 2003, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Alvaro Gil-Robles came to Malta on an official visit. This is what he had to say about the Office of the Refugee Commissioner:

“During my visit, I observed that the Refugee Commissioner, the first-instance body in asylum proceedings, gave all the necessary attention to asylum seekers. To Malta’s credit, the proportion of asylum status and humanitarian protection granted is significantly superior to most of the European countries. The procedure itself, therefore, is not in question. Nevertheless, it would appear crucial to accelerate it in order to reduce to a minimum the duration of asylum seekers’ detention.

“While the necessary reforms concern the acceleration of the treatment of individual cases, the length of such proceedings would not be excessive were it not for the detention of asylum seekers.

“It appears that a number of civil servants have received training aiming at giving occasional support to the Office of the Refugee Commissioner which is currently composed of the commissioner, a lawyer and three administrative assistants.  However laudable these steps might be, and helpful on an ad hoc basis, they are manifestly insufficient. The Maltese authorities ought, therefore, to provide the competent organs on asylum matters – i.e. Refugees Commissioner and Refugee Appeals Board – with an adequate and permanent staff to speed up the decision-making process without prejudice to the quality of the hearing and analysis of applications.”

It was through my own personal decision and of my own free will that, in June 2007, I decided to retire from the Office of Refugee Commissioner. 

The foundations of the office were firmly in place. 

My message to my successor was: there is enough good reason to look ahead with confidence, based on achievement.

Charles Buttigieg, former refugee commissioner