Malta Embraces Foreign Workers to Address Labor Shortage but Rejects Refugees : Analysis

Valleta, Malta – Amit* smoothly traveled through the streets of Marsaxlokk, a vibrant fishing village in Malta, on his way to pick up two passengers in his taxi.

“I love my job in this country,” he expressed. “Malta was my gateway to Europe.”

Amit arrived in Malta this year from Bangladesh, paying $3,200 to an immigration agency for assistance.

“I found an agency on Facebook that advertised a job with a private taxi company. They helped me with my application and visa to come and work in Malta,” Amit revealed to Al Jazeera. “Now, I earn around 1,000 euros [$1,085] per month, some of which I send back home. It has been an expensive process, but I am content.”

Just a few blocks away, Nita*, originally from northeastern India, awaited a bus that would take her to Valletta, the capital city of Malta.

“I used to live in Dubai and work in the hospitality sector there. But I wanted to come to Europe, so I found a recruitment agency in Dubai that assisted me in obtaining a Maltese work permit,” Nita shared with Al Jazeera.

In recent years, Malta has become a hub, attracting numerous migrants who fill the country’s labor gaps, particularly in the hospitality, healthcare, and service sectors.

Former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, who aimed to transform Malta into the “next Dubai,” is credited with driving migration flows in recent years, as stated in a speech he delivered in June 2014. In the same address, he articulated his goal to create a recruitment system similar to Dubai’s, facilitating the entry of migrant workers from South and Southeast Asian countries through agencies.

“Our geographical location has always made Malta attractive to migrants who want to work in our country, being at the crossroads of the Mediterranean and the center of the busiest shipping route in the world,” Muscat explained to Al Jazeera. “However, in recent years, we have faced labor shortages in sectors such as services and healthcare, while also dealing with an aging population. Introducing a structured system to bring migrants to the country was essential.”

Situated in the Central Mediterranean, Malta serves as an entry point to Europe for many individuals fleeing conflict and poverty in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

While Malta has granted asylum to some refugees, rights groups have accused the country of utilizing “illegal tactics” to push back and prevent the entry of migrants and refugees, such as conducting pushbacks at sea.

Daniel Mainwaring, an independent researcher specializing in foreign policy and migration, observed that Valletta has developed “legal pathways” for foreigners seeking employment in Malta, but whenever the government witnesses a surge of people arriving by sea seeking refuge, the focus shifts to reducing overall migrant arrivals.

“Migrants who enter the country through contracts are often considered good migrants, while those who arrive by sea are labeled illegal,” Mainwaring highlighted. “What is interesting is that they sometimes come from the same country.”

“There are Bangladeshis who obtain visas with the help of agencies and enter Malta legally, and there are Bangladeshis whose visas are rejected, leading them to choose the sea route in search of refuge in Malta,” Mainwaring continued. “People from the same country are using two very different migratory paths and are equally vulnerable but are treated differently.”

Significant numbers of contracted migrants working in Malta originate from non-European Union countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and the Philippines.

Private recruitment agencies promote employment opportunities in Malta by offering attractive salaries and charge commissions for assisting individuals with obtaining Maltese residency documents.

“As our economy grows, we face an increasing problem of a lack of people willing to work in certain jobs in the service industry, such as hospitality and healthcare,” Muscat observed. “Economic growth has consequently led to migration, with people from non-EU nations coming to Malta to work in these industries and send money back home.”

However, rights groups and investigative journalists have exposed exploitative practices employed by some immigration agencies, including recruiting individuals for jobs that pay below minimum wage and provide poor working conditions. Local media has even reported cases where migrant workers arrive in Malta to discover that the promised jobs do not exist.

“I have heard stories about people not being paid properly or not receiving a job after arrival, forcing them to leave,” Nita disclosed. “Although I am content working here, my ultimate goal is to find work elsewhere in Europe. Our living conditions here are still very poor. But I cannot complain since I need to support my family in India.”

Neil Falzon, the director of the Maltese human rights organization Aditus Foundation, informed Al Jazeera that foreign workers who rely on recruitment agencies for entry into Malta “have very limited protection from the government.”

“Their rights are severely limited, so we are talking about modern slavery in many cases,” Falzon expressed.

Muscat asserted that agencies involved in violating workers’ rights should face punishment and stated that the government has initiated action. Prime Minister Robert Abela’s administration has drafted new regulations for recruitment agencies that are expected to take effect next year.

“It is good that the government recognizes the problem, but implementation of rules tends to be slow after major announcements,” Falzon criticized. “In many cases, the battle is less against the government and more against the private agencies that employ and exploit migrants. Therefore, we are pushing the government to introduce stricter legislation to protect the rights of contracted migrants.”

Simultaneously, some locals and far-right politicians have begun calling on the government to tighten restrictions on foreign labor.

“Some local Maltese individuals want migrants to build and clean our roads but also blame them if there is crime,” Mainwaring pointed out. “As a result, the government may begin cracking down on the African or Asian migrant community, arresting a few individuals or revoking their residency status, as an attempt to appease these disgruntled locals and far-right politicians.”

However, Muscat argued that non-Maltese workers are essential to Malta, as sectors such as healthcare would collapse without them. “We need to protect them, and the government is ensuring this,” he declared.

Malta is not the only EU member state that has been utilizing recruitment agencies to attract migrant workers in recent years. For example, Hungary has also adopted this approach.

Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni announced plans to bring in 450,000 non-EU migrant workers in the next two years while concurrently aiming to halt refugee arrivals by sea.

Bram Frouws, the head of the Mixed Migration Centre, highlighted that countries that openly welcome foreign workers while adopting aggressive measures against undocumented individuals do so “for political gain or to use migrants as a scapegoat.”

“While organized legal migration is a necessary step, the way irregular migration is being addressed, with pushbacks, abuses, deaths, and undermining of search and rescue at sea, remains a significant issue,” Frouws emphasized. “To a large extent, European countries are also focusing on labor migrants from different countries of origin than those arriving irregularly by sea. Thus, the kind of legal migration they are organizing may not necessarily address irregular migration effectively.”

Mainwaring believes that quickly processing asylum claims and integrating refugees into society is the ideal solution.

“This way, the need for a contracted migration system, which in reality turns out to be exploitative and as harsh as pushbacks at sea, may diminish,” Mainwaring suggested.

Source: Aljazeera news: Malta welcomes foreign workers to fill labour shortage, but repels refugees