Malta Independent
Tuesday, November 06, 2012
10 persons from Somalia, consisting of 3 families granted protection in Malta left today to start a new life in Ireland. Staff from the Irish Department of Justice and Equality will be meeting the three families upon their arrival to the Dublin airport.
They will then be accommodated in a reception centre where other recently-arrived and resettled refugees and asylum-seekers currently reside. They will be relocated to their permanent residence after a short orientation programme
This latest departure brings the total of beneficiaries of international protection who were relocated to Ireland from Malta since 2007 to 30 migrants. This is the second time in twelve months that the Irish Government has decided to relocate a group of protected refugees from Malta. Ireland had already relocated 10 individuals from Malta in 2007 and a further 10 on 13 December 2011.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Malta and the International Organisation for Migration, together with government officials from Ireland and Malta were involved.
In all 1,753 refugees and beneficiaries of international protection have been relocated or resettled to various developed countries since 2005 – 363 of these since the beginning of the current year.