EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Somali’s President
Hassan Sheikh Mohamud arriving at the New Deal for Somalia conference in
Brussels on September 16. Photo: Reuters
Tuesday, October 01, 2013
The Government’s €150,000 three-year aid package for Somalia has been
described as “ludicrous” by international development NGO Kopin.
Malta’s pledge formed part of the €1.8 billion that was promised to
Somalia by international donors last week in a “new deal” designed to
rebuild the troubled country after two decades of civil strife.
Among notable EU donors, Germany pledged €90 million, Sweden €170
million, Denmark $124 million (€92 million) and the UK £50 million (€60
million).
Kopin pointed out that the Government would have more funds to spend
on meaningful foreign aid if it did not use much of its overseas
development assistance budget for detaining irregular migrants at home.
“The Maltese Government could perform much better in its development
work, starting off from investing in genuine aid,” Kopin said when
contacted.
Last year the Government spent approximately 52 per cent of its €14.3
million ODA budget on the detention of irregular migrants during their
first year on the island.
“Freeing up €7.5 million [used for detention] could contribute far
more than the ludicrous €50,000 per year to Somalia,” Kopin said.
Speaking to Times of Malta last May, the Foreign Ministry vowed to
continue the previous administration’s practice of classifying detention
of irregular migrants in their first year as ODA. This is in line with
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development guidelines.
The Government has stated that it intends to honour the EU commitment
for member states that joined the union post-2002 to spend 0.33 per
cent of Gross National Income on overseas aid by 2015.
“However, this figure does not withstand basic critical analysis by
international human rights standards,” Kopin said, adding that
virtually all member states use dubious mechanisms to inflate their own
figures.
When Foreign Minister George Vella announced that Malta would
contribute €50,000 per annum over three years to Somalia at the New Deal
conference in Brussels, he highlighted that the island had experienced
“heavy influxes of irregular migrants from the Horn of Africa, of whom
one-third come from Somalia”.
Contacted by this newspaper, Nationalist MEP Roberta Metsola referred
to the €84.9 million Malta has received from the EU since 2007 to help
the country deal with migrant influxes.
“In comparison, the Government has pledged €50,000 per year to
Somalia, or about half of what Malta is reportedly paying for Minister
Konrad Mizzi’s wife to be its ‘envoy’,” Dr Metsola said, referring to
Sai Mizzi’s engagement as investment envoy for Malta Enterprise in Asia.
“I expected much better. To me it shows that the Government has not
yet grasped the significance of a stable Somalia,” the MEP said, adding
that the African state was still very fragile.
“A resurgent Somalia is perhaps the only viable long-term solution to
the immigration flows from this country to the Mediterranean.”
Kopin said it will take much longer than three years for Somalia to
develop into a stable, peaceful state with fair political systems, an
effective educational system and successful reconciliation mechanisms.
“Only with a huge genuine effort supported by the international
community could this country become more stable. However, this will
certainly take at least two generations. The region remains one of the
poorest in the world, which means migration streams will continue coming
north in the future,” Kopin said.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman said that, while €50,000 per year may
appear comparatively small, “if you take it per capita, we have one of
the highest pledges, if not the highest one to Somalia”. This does not
bear up to scrutiny.
Sweden, for example, has a population of 9.6 million, meaning its
total three-year contribution to the New Deal for Somalia equates to
€17.71 per citizen.
Malta, on the other hand, has a population of 418,000, meaning its three-year contribution works out as 36 cents per citizen.
Taking into account that Sweden’s GDP per capita is more than
two-and-a-half times higher than Malta’s, there is still a significant
difference in the contributions.
During his speech to the UN General Assembly last week, Prime
Minister Joseph Muscat spoke on how Malta “assumed responsibilities and
obligations in the context of overseas development assistance with
developing countries”.
A meeting between Dr Muscat and Somali Deputy Prime Minister Fawzia
Yusuf Adam was held during last week’s UN General Assembly. Dr Muscat
made a formal request to establish diplomatic relations with Somalia.