On 5 December 2014, EMN National Contact Point (NCP) for Malta organised a conference in Valletta focused on four topics: unaccompanied minors migrating to Europe, events in the Mediterranean, assisted voluntary returns of irregular migrants and attracting business migrants. An expert of the IOM Office in the Slovak Republic coordinating EMN activities in Slovakia gave speech at the conference.
The introduction of EMN activities including the new edition of the Migration and Asylum Glossary was followed by the first panel on unaccompanied minors migrating to Europe. Apart from the speakers – Alexander Tortell from Agency for the Welfare of Asylum Seekers and Francesco Vacchiano from the Institute for Social Sciences at the University of Lisbon –migrants also shared their experience on being an unaccompanied minor coming to a foreign country.
The second part focused on the events in the Mediterranean was commenced by Dominic Fenech from the University of Malta who introduced the topic. Joe Mangion from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Malta dealt with the crisis in Libya. Anna Khakee from the University of Malta continued with the presentation about how the relationship between Morocco and the EU contributes to the long-term stability in the country. Andrea Crescenzi from the Italian Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche finished the panel with his speech on the protection of EU external borders in the Mediterranean area.
In the third part, Margaret James from ICF International introduced programs of assisted voluntary returns in the EU Member States and Norway. Subsequently, Laura Maciulskaite from IOM Malta presented the program of assisted voluntary returns and reintegration and Adriana Weissova from IOM Slovakia shared the Slovak experience with returns and reintegration of irregular migrants to Eastern European countries and Asia.
Joseph Mizzi from the investor program Identity Malta spoke in the last panel on facilitating migration of business persons. The Lithuanian business migration scheme was described by Evelina Gudzinskaite from the Migration Department of the Lithuanian Ministry of Interior. The conference was concluded by Godfrey Baldacchino, professor from the University of Malta and Prince Edward Island University in Canada, with his speech on immigrant entrepreneurs on small islands.
More information about the conference including programme and presentations is available on Maltese EMN NCP website.