Average asylum seeker earns just €4,823 per year – report

The average asylum seeker earns €4,823 per year, falling well below Malta’s 2014 at-risk-of-poverty threshold of €7,672, and even further when comparing it to the €24,730 Maltese average, according to a report by JRS Malta and Aditus.

The report, entitled ‘Struggling to Survive’, is an investigation into the risk of poverty among asylum seekers in Malta

Dr Katherine Camilleri of JRS Malta said that the report aims to “better understand the situation among asylum seekers and to shed light on their experience of poverty, deprivation, and social exclusion.

“The right to live with dignity must be available to all,” Dr Camilleri went on to say.

The author of the report, Dr Julian Caruana, said that poverty has a short and long-term effect on the physical and mental wellbeing of an individual.

The report found that poverty and deprivation are widespread among asylum seekers.

It also found that their financial situation experiences little to no improvement the longer they remain in the country.

Dr Caruana’s report presented a number of recommendations to remedy the situation. Pointing towards an increase in minimum wage, he said: “If the minimum wage does not become a means to exit poverty than the phenomenon will prevail and increase.”

He also called for the implementation of a structured integration programme, which will include empowerment and skills training programmes for female asylum seekers.

The report also proposes that the asylum seeking population in mainstream poverty studies is an at risk group.