The process of trying to bring their undocumented workers in line with the law is “disheartening” and it often “feels unachievable”, according to a number of employers.
Multiple employers who spoke to Times of Malta over the past few weeks have admitted they feel the need to regularise their undocumented workers and say a temporary amnesty would help them do so.
The feeling was accentuated after migrant worker Jaiteh Lamin was allegedly abandoned on the road by his boss – instead of being taken to hospital – after being seriously injured on a construction site last month. Lamin did not have a permit to work here.
But employers, mainly from the construction industry, say it is proving very difficult to obtain documentation for their own workers who are in a similar situation. This is mainly because there is no regularisation process in place.
“We must lie our way through the system, pretending that the workers have just arrived in Malta and have never been employed,” one said.
From the day they land in Malta, third country nationals have their passport stamped with a 90-day tourist visa. If they intend to work here, they must apply for a single work permit before that time is up. If they are employed beyond the 90 days, then they are considered as undocumented workers.
We must lie our way through the system, pretending that the workers have just arrived in Malta and have never been employed
“We have the option of firing them, sending them back to their countries and replacing them with third country nationals who have just arrived in Malta and are still in time to apply for the permit legitimately,” an employer said.
“But instead of doing all of that, we could just regularise the people we already have, because we already know them and trust them. But Identity Malta officials say they must return to their countries.”
A couple of the employers said officials even suggested they should send the worker abroad and book them a flight back after some time, just so that the new passport stamp would fool the system into thinking the worker has just arrived.
The employers are calling on the authorities to create an amnesty period for their undocumented workers, to allow them to regularise them. The process would be designed specifically for migrant workers who are not eligible to apply for a work permit.
“Employers would have, say, six months to regularise their workers, after which the government would be able to clamp down on the black market,” one employer said.