A new approach that recognises migration as a natural process of humanity, treating migrants humanely, is urgently needed. We require a policy that regards all individuals as persons first and foremost, not merely as workers, strangers or, worse still, invaders. Whether in search of food, work or peace and safety, people are drawn by the promise of dignity – a fundamental and inalienable right.
By no stretch of the imagination can migration be considered a new phenomenon of our era. Centuries past, as well as this decade, have borne witness to exodus after exodus of peoples. Extreme poverty, war, conflict, environmental disasters, persecution, food insecurity and a lack of job opportunities have been the driving forces behind the global movement of people since the dawn of humanity.
People leave the place they call home in search of a brighter present and future, an aspiration that should never be criminalised. While some migrants hold onto the hope of returning one day, others are resolute in their determination to settle or have no realistic choice but to stay.
Many find themselves forced to move because their only choice is between dying or die trying to migrate. Others are compelled by circumstances so dire that they are willing to risk everything in search of greener pastures.
Regardless of the story their journey tells, every migrant embarks on a path filled with tribulations, always holding onto the hope that the next step will bring them closer to the kind of security that their home can no longer provide.
It is utopic to believe that this will ever cease. Yet, discourse about migration continues to revolve around border controls and security, rather than a true understanding of how to offer accessible, regulated migration pathways for those in search of safety – where such pathways have become nearly impossible to find.
If migration is not properly regularised, those forced to move will go to great lengths to escape their circumstances. What regularised pathways fail to provide will be filled by traffickers, smugglers and criminal organisations, who view desperation as an opportunity for unscrupulous enrichment – essentially treating migrants as commodities from which to profit. Who would risk their life in the hands of criminals if a regular and safe migration pathway were available?
Certain people involved in regular migration adopt the same unscrupulous practices of enrichment as smugglers and criminal organisations- Fr Anton D'Amato
Unless Maltese and European authorities shift away from a security-focused perspective on migration toward a more innovative system of equitable pathways, migration will always be perceived as a problem to be stopped rather than a natural course of humanity. Unfortunately, migration remains a contentious issue that polarises and tends to favour extreme right-wing perspectives.
I doubt that these same European and national authorities would have been content if, in the previous century, countries like the US, Canada, Argentina and Australia, among others, did not make it possible for European emigrants to move in a regular manner.
Ironically, upon closer examination of the local situation, the same unscrupulous attitude of enrichment of smugglers and criminal organisations has become embedded and systemic to regularised paths of migration. Many who arrive through regular channels are being ensnared in a system that demands thousands of euros merely for entry with a valid permit. This burdens them with a massive debt that they must repay. This is one of the primary reasons why they end up living in conditions that are not dignified.
This system places them in precarious job security situations, making them vulnerable to exploitation and prone to falling through the cracks, thereby jeopardising their stay in Malta. Such treatment reduces them to commodities for profit, mirroring the very practices of smugglers and traffickers.
A new approach and a just policy are urgently required; otherwise, our system will continue to be no better than that of smugglers, traffickers and criminal organisations.
Fr Anton D’Amato is director of the Migrants Commission.