On 18 May 2021, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) published its conclusions on the implementation of two of its priority recommendations made to Malta in its Fifth Monitoring Cycle report in 2018.

ECRI recommended that the authorities should continue to allow persons who cannot be returned to their country of origin to stay legally in Malta and that for those who have resided in Malta for more than ten years, should be given a more permanent form of regularisation. ECRI has analysed the information provided by the Maltese authorities, and while recognising the position of Malta as an exposed frontline State in relation to refugee flows and its limited population size, ECRI considers that this recommendation has not been implemented.

ECRI was informed by the Maltese authorities that under present legislation, migrants who are irregularly present in Malta and cannot until further notice be returned to their countries of origin, are granted temporary renewable residence permits. However, such migrants will not receive permanent resident status. In this respect, an ad hoc policy was in place regarding non-returnable failed asylum seekers who entered Malta prior to 31 December 2015 and who have resided in Malta for at least five years. Persons profiting from this policy were granted a specific immigration status referred to as Specific Residence Authorisation, which entitles them to a two-year renewable residence permit, a work permit (“employment licence”) travel document and access to a core welfare benefits on the same terms as persons granted subsidiary protection. In addition, they are given access to State education and training, as well as medical care.

Criteria for obtaining Specific Residence Authorisation included, apart from the period of residence, having been frequently employed (on average nine months per year or more) and having made integration efforts, e.g. by studying Maltese or English. Given the criteria of on the one hand having entered Malta prior to 31 December 2015 and on the other hand having resided at least five years in Malta, it has not been possible to submit any new applications since the end of 2020. The Maltese authorities do not plan to offer any form of permanent residence permit to migrants who are irregularly present in Malta, regardless of whether they are in possession of a temporary residence permit or not.

In parallel, Malta has fully implemented the recommendation about establishing a mechanism for collecting data on hate crime incidents and hate speech, recording the specific bias motivation and the criminal justice response, and making this data accessible to the public.