Since 2025 the global humanitarian sector has faced slashed budgets and huge funding shortages, as states cut humanitarian aid and increased military spending, clearly choosing to prioritise securitisation over solidarity and care for each other, especially the most...
This year, on the 112th World Day for Migrants and Refugees, Pope Leo XIV calls on us all to remember the suffering of migrant and refugee children, especially those travelling alone. At JRS, the cornerstone of our work with young people is that these children are...
On Friday, 11th September, we invite you to gather with us at St Aloysius College, B’Kara, for our annual fundraising celebration, Under the Stars. Doors open at 7pm. This event is our yearly event celebrating community, an effort to raise funds for our cause, and an...
We are extremely disappointed that the Equality Minister’s first decision was to wholly ignore human rights NGOs. The Bill to strengthen Malta’s human rights regime and establish a much-needed human rights institution was rushed through Parliament, despite our...
ILGA-Europe have drafted a letter to European Parliament President Roberta Metsola following last week’s shameful scenes at the European Parliament on the occasion of the adoption of the Return Regulation, calling on her to publicly condemn the chanting of the MEPs,...
For a couple of weeks in June the JRS offices had the pleasure of welcoming a group of volunteers from the Boston University. The students participated in job shadowing, received training and joined in on different activities with staff members. As part of our ongoing...
The government of Malta was ordered to pay €5,000 to a teenage asylum seeker for breaching his fundamental rights. Judge Giovanni Grixti ruled that Ayoubah Fona was unlawfully detained as a minor in poor conditions. Lawyer Neil Falzon from aditus foundation, together...
As 2025 draws to a close, we want to thank you for continuing to walk this journey with us, a journey alongside countless refugees and displaced families who long for safety, peace, and a place to belong. Unfortunately, just when the needs are greatest, devastating...
We are deeply concerned at Malta’s statement urging the Council of Europe to explore how to restrict the fundamental human rights of migrants. Packaged as national security measures, the proposals will result in a dramatic lowering of human rights standards in over...
JRS Malta is launching a Call for a Service Contract for the provision of research studies into the lived experiences of asylum seekers and the legal and policy framework regulating access to healthcare for different categories of migrants. This task is part of the...
This is a joint statement by 24 Maltese civil society organisations condemning the 2027 budget as a “shocking leap towards a country that officially segregates people on the basis of their nationality”. This is the statement in full:
The 2027 Budget presented by the Government was characterised by both measures and discourse that unfairly target foreign workers, often an extremely vulnerable and least wealthy group. They are among those most at risk of poverty and social exclusion, employment abuse, and even injury and death at the workplace.
As organisations working in the social and cultural fields, we are already painfully aware of the inequality and discrimination experienced by foreign workers in Malta. Yet, this Budget represents a shocking leap towards a country that officially segregates people on the basis of their nationality. Forcing third-country nationals (TCNs) to pay for basic services that are free for others, placing a particularly heavy burden on families with children, while also denying them employment rights enjoyed by other workers, is deeply unjust and simply unjustifiable.
This is an affront to social justice that inflicts pain on the targeted workers, as well as on their Maltese friends, partners and colleagues. We also question the legality of such measures in terms of conformity with the Constitution and relevant EU law on non-discrimination and rights of workers.
The situation is all the more absurd considering that it was this same Government that built an economic model based on the labour of foreign workers, bringing in thousands of workers to fill mostly low-paid jobs created by its policy of unsustainable economic growth. In effect, the anti-worker measures unveiled in the Budget will do nothing to reduce the rate at which our country requires an ever-increasing number of workers to satisfy the demands of an ever-growing economy. They will simply force the least wealthy in our society to pay much more.
After years of giving the impression that money was no problem thanks to a strong economy, the Government is now squeezing those who can least afford it, while pandering to racist and xenophobic sentiments, simply because these workers have no vote and little political or social power.
The disastrous impact of such policies does not stop at the material hardship inflicted on migrant workers. These measures also entrench and take to an extreme a social model based on division and exploitation, in which a large class of workers is treated as little more than a resource to be exploited, with their rights and dignity disregarded at will. This will lead to even greater marginalisation of foreign workers and the uglification of Maltese society.
We strongly urge the Government to reverse these unfair, anti-worker measures and instead start working towards a just and sustainable economic model in which workers’ rights and dignity come before the insatiable pursuit of profits.
Organisations
Aditus Foundation
African Media Association Malta
Association for Justice, Equality and Peace
Blue Door Education
Dance Beyond Borders
Dar Merħba Bik Foundation
Dean – Faculty of Education
Fondazzjoni Sebħ
Friends of the Earth Malta
Ġustizzja għall-Palestina
Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Malta
Kopin
LGBTI+ Gozo
Malta Entertainment Industry and Arts Association (MEIA)
Malta LGBTIQ Rights Movement (MGRM)
Maltese Association of Social Workers
Migrant Women Association Malta
Moviment Graffitti
PEN Malta
Solidarjetà
SOS Malta
TCN Alliance
Victim Support Malta
Women’s Rights Foundation
Since 2025 the global humanitarian sector has faced slashed budgets and huge funding shortages, as states cut humanitarian aid and increased military spending, clearly choosing to prioritise securitisation over solidarity and care for each other, especially the most...
This year, on the 112th World Day for Migrants and Refugees, Pope Leo XIV calls on us all to remember the suffering of migrant and refugee children, especially those travelling alone. At JRS, the cornerstone of our work with young people is that these children are...
On Friday, 11th September, we invite you to gather with us at St Aloysius College, B’Kara, for our annual fundraising celebration, Under the Stars. Doors open at 7pm. This event is our yearly event celebrating community, an effort to raise funds for our cause, and an...
We are extremely disappointed that the Equality Minister’s first decision was to wholly ignore human rights NGOs. The Bill to strengthen Malta’s human rights regime and establish a much-needed human rights institution was rushed through Parliament, despite our...
ILGA-Europe have drafted a letter to European Parliament President Roberta Metsola following last week’s shameful scenes at the European Parliament on the occasion of the adoption of the Return Regulation, calling on her to publicly condemn the chanting of the MEPs,...
For a couple of weeks in June the JRS offices had the pleasure of welcoming a group of volunteers from the Boston University. The students participated in job shadowing, received training and joined in on different activities with staff members. As part of our ongoing...
The government of Malta was ordered to pay €5,000 to a teenage asylum seeker for breaching his fundamental rights. Judge Giovanni Grixti ruled that Ayoubah Fona was unlawfully detained as a minor in poor conditions. Lawyer Neil Falzon from aditus foundation, together...
As 2025 draws to a close, we want to thank you for continuing to walk this journey with us, a journey alongside countless refugees and displaced families who long for safety, peace, and a place to belong. Unfortunately, just when the needs are greatest, devastating...
We are deeply concerned at Malta’s statement urging the Council of Europe to explore how to restrict the fundamental human rights of migrants. Packaged as national security measures, the proposals will result in a dramatic lowering of human rights standards in over...
JRS Malta is launching a Call for a Service Contract for the provision of research studies into the lived experiences of asylum seekers and the legal and policy framework regulating access to healthcare for different categories of migrants. This task is part of the...
Since 2025 the global humanitarian sector has faced slashed budgets and huge funding shortages, as states cut humanitarian aid and increased military spending, clearly choosing to prioritise...
This year, on the 112th World Day for Migrants and Refugees, Pope Leo XIV calls on us all to remember the suffering of migrant and refugee children, especially those travelling alone. At JRS, the...
