The European Dispositif of Border Control in Malta. Migrants’ Experiences of a Securitized Borderland

ABSTRACT

With its accession to the European Union (EU) in 2004, Malta became a part of a European dispositif of border control. Maltese policy-makers are now charged with preventing migrants from reaching the EU mainland. Malta has thus implemented a mandatory detention policy towards people rescued at sea. When migrants arrive on the island, they are detained in military barracks for a period of up to 18 months. Subsequently, they are released from detention. Some settle in Malta, while others manage to leave the island. This paper combines critical security studies with borderlands studies to examine the construction and reinforcement of a border through social practices and government apparatuses. It explores migrants’ own experiences of what is conceptualized as a securitized borderland. The securitized borderland concept, which simultaneously refers to a space of control, a zone of transit and a place of living, is ambivalent enough to capture the ambiguous situation of migrants in Malta. Empirical data is based on fieldwork carried out in Malta and Brussels, which included observations and interactions with migrants, and interviews with national and European policy-makers, as well as with representatives from international and non-governmental organizations. Finally, this paper offers an ethnography of the social construction of an island-border which epitomizes the concept of a securitized borderland.

Acknowledgments

I would like to sincerely thank the G3 project “Frontière(s), Identité(s) et Représentation(s)” for its generous support. Many thanks to Eva Oyon for her support to edit this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 I use the term migrants and not asylum-seekers or refugees, even if the majority of migrants rescued at sea and transferred to Malta apply for asylum to the Maltese authorities. Asylum-seekers and refugees are legal categories and I do not use them because I am not defending a legal argument. I use the term migrant because I analyze how “migrants” are constructed as policy subjects and how they constitute a community of experience through rescue, incarceration, detention, placement in open centers, and discrimination. As Feldman suggests, “the ‘migrant’ does not exist ontologically but rather as someone who is enticed into a social role and negotiates it in a historically constituted field of political, economic, and social relations” (2011, 8).

2 There are actually some restrictive possibilities to leave Malta through a European relocation program and a US resettlement program. However, those opportunities do not refer to a legal but an administrative process.

3 In 2005, the Nationalist government published a policy document “Irregular immigrants, refugees and integration,” designing the detention policy onwards. In 2015, the Labor government launched a “New Strategy on Migration”, which officially restricts mandatory detention. However, the changes were decided in a specific context. Indeed, the arrivals of migrants by boat have dramatically decreased since 2015. According to the Maltese newspaper the Independent, the reason for the decrease is a “secret pact” reached between Malta and Italy that has seen Malta exchanging certain oil exploration rights in return for Italy rescuing migrants in the Central Mediterranean. The Independent, Italian MEP resurrects oil-rights-for-migrants allegations, June 21, 2017, http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2017-06-21/local-news/Italian-MEP-resurrects-oil-rights-for-migrants-allegations-6736175597

4 Fieldwork diary notes, May 2011, Malta.

5 Taglioni provides a definition of small insular spaces and explains how different they are from other islands (2011).

6 European Migration Network, The Organisation of Asylum and Migration Policies in Malta, 2008.

7 Interview, Head of Detention Services, June 6, 2012, Malta.

8 For more information on the Aden Ahmed versus Malta case: http://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/CP_Malta_ENG.pdf

9 Times of Malta, Former soldiers cleared of 2011 involuntary homicide. Migrant they captured had later died of a heart attack, October 27 2017, https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20171027/local/former-soldiers-cleared-of-2011-involuntary-homicide.661532

10 Malta Today, Inquiry into Mamadou Kamara death remains under wraps, October 7, 2014, http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/national/44604/inquiry_into_mamadou_kamara_death_remains_under_wraps#.WfsM1UeDNhA

11 There are four different statuses attributed to migrants by the Refugee Commission: refugee, subsidiary protection, temporary humanitarian protection and rejected asylum-seekers. Depending on their status, migrants do not have access to the same level of rights. For instance, refugee have access to the same rights as nationals. Rejected asylum-seekers do not have any rights.

12 Interview, Resident, Hal Far Hangar, January 19, 2010, Malta.

13 Interview, Director of AWAS, February 19, 2010, Malta.

14 UNHCR Malta, Malta Fact sheet 2002–2010, http://www.unhcr.org.mt/charts/uploads/resources/read/files/3_unhcr_malta_fact_sheet_2002-2010.pdf

15 Migrants holding a legal status are allowed to apply for a Schengen visa and to travel for 3 months in the EU. Migrants are not allowed to settle down anywhere in the EU than in Malta, but they use their Schengen visa to relocate themselves. However, when their visa is expired, they can potentially be repatriated to Malta given the Eurodac regulation. Migrants without legal documents are not able to apply for a Schengen visa, but they still manage to leave the island by boat and require the service of smugglers or by plane with false documents. Moreover, some migrants have also been relocated to European countries and resettled the United States under resettlement and relocation schemes.

16 Fieldwork diary notes, September 15, 2013, Malta.

17 Fieldwork diary notes, September 25, 2013, Malta.

18 Fieldwork diary notes, January 18, 2010, Malta.

19 Council of Europe, Report by Thomas Hammarber Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe following his visit to Malta from 23 to 25 March 2011.

20 European Network Against Racism, 2009/2010 Shadow report, racism and discrimination in Malta, The People for Change Foundation. Brussels, Belgium: European Network Against Racism.

21 Fieldwork diary notes, September 25, 2013, Malta.

22 As part of an unofficial regularization process, 847 rejected asylum seekers who have been living for five years in Malta, learning English and Maltese and, working legally, were rewarded with a Temporary Humanitarian Protection New in 2010 (Interview Refugee Commissioner, April 4, 2012). I call it unofficial because it has not been labeled as regularization by the authorities. The type of status granted is also only valid for one year and does not give any right to permanent residency.

23 Times of Malta, Stamp out racism or suffer the consequences, April 9, 2012, https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120409/editorial/Stamp-out-racism-or-suffer-the-consequences.414654

24 Fieldwork diary notes, April 25, 2012, Malta.