ABSTRACT
The ‘criminalisation of migration’ (Melossi 2003) began for the women in this research at the stage of arrival in Malta. Arrival is here defined as occurring at the site at which people are brought to Malta. Malta, which prior to joining the EU had relaxed visa arrangements with many countries in North Africa (LE 1), has now undergone a process of re-bordering to align with EU provisions on asylum and refugee policy. Government rhetoric has focused on ‘the burden of illegal immigration’ (Abela 2011) and describes Malta as being in a ‘truly vulnerable position’ as regards the ‘fight against irregular migration’ (MJHA and MFSS 2005: 6). This vulnerability is attributed to ‘its strategic position, exposed coastline and size’. Policy statements of the Maltese government use unspecific but evocative terms in characterizing those on board the boats (almost 100 percent of whom apply for asylum) as a challenge to ‘public order’ and ‘national security’. In Malta, not unlike other contexts (Bigo 2005), a paucity of evidence supports the conclusion that this population constitutes a security risk. Punishment was the main theme to emerge when the women participants talked of life in Malta and their immediate struggle to survive. As this chapter reveals, the physical and mental health of transnational migrants gradually declined the longer they stayed in Malta as a result of the punishment they experienced in the legal, social and economic spheres of life.
