A new JRS Malta report uncovers shocking levels of exploitation and mistreatment among migrant workers in Malta, including withholding of wages, firing people without due cause, violations of health and safety regulations, and numerous instances of bullying, discrimination and racism in the workplace.

The report, called “Forced to Hide – The Human Cost of Legal Precarity and Labour Exploitation”, was launched on Wednesday 3^rd September at Europe House, Valletta. The research encompassed a series of interviews with migrants, all with different degrees of legal precarity – from TCNs in Malta on a Single Work Permit, to asylum seekers, rejected asylum seekers and undocumented workers.

Migrants interviewed spoke not only of fear and psychological stresses at work but how living in the community has become increasingly harder. They are constantly vulnerable to immigration control measures and raids in the community that have targeted even those who have been living and working in Malta for many years.

The report concludes with 3 key recommendations directed at policymakers, employers and society as a whole:

• The reintroduction of a regularization pathway, which would provide legal stability to many people who did not qualify for asylum or protection status yet have been living in Malta for a number of years, paying taxes, are part of Maltese society and strong and diverse communities.
• Prioritization of workers’ rights, regardless of legal status – ill-treatment at the workplace and violations of employment law must be investigated thoroughly and punished, regardless of the worker’s legal status. The culture of impunity and profit from exploitation must be met with zero-tolerance.
• Creation of spaces for dialogue and joint action to ensure effective protection of undocumented migrants including better collaboration between stakeholders to raise awareness of exploitative and illegal practices, highlighting lived experiences and the real impact of the government’s policies on people’s lives.

This research was conducted by JRS Malta as part of a project, entitled ‘Forced to hide: Understanding the human cost of the shadow economy on the lives of vulnerable migrant workers in Malta’. It was supported by the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM) and the Robert Bosch Stiftung’s grant programme on labour rights and labour migration.  As part of the project, the aforementioned research report was developed, alongside a collection of narrative stories and a short, animated documentary film, Paper Ghosts.

The feature can be downloaded viewed and downloaded here.