A total of 71 per cent of young Muslims in Malta feel they have been discriminated against, a European study has concluded. Seventy-one per cent of young Muslims in Malta said they were discriminated against while a third of young Muslims interviewed all over Europe said they had experienced the same. Also, 64 per cent of Africans of North and Sub-Saharan origin in Malta who identified themselves as Muslims, experienced discrimination in the past 12 months. The European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey (EU-MIDIS), the first EU-wide survey to ask immigrant and ethnic minority groups about their experiences of discrimination and criminal victimisation in everyday life, uncovered the information when the survey was published yesterday. The report says that the Malta’s example merits future careful examination. “The high levels of experienced discrimination should be toned down as they affect asylum seekers primarily, who enter the country in disproportionate numbers to those in other member states and to the size of the country’s population, as United Nations High Commission for Refugees figures show. This could mean that Malta stands to benefit from targeted EU support in its efforts to deal with discrimination in relation to specific groups, such as asylum seekers. Regarding the number of discrimination incidents among those discriminated against at least once in the past year, Malta placed 6th among the 19 participant countries with 6.8 incidents. Fifty-two per cent of Muslims in Malta are not aware of a law that forbids discrimination against people looking for a job on the basis of their ethnic or immigrant background. 23 per cent said it does not exist and 25 per cent said it does. It is interesting to note that 94 per cent of Muslims said Malta does not have an agency that offers support to people who were discriminated against. In fact Africans in Malta and Iraqis in Sweden were the least aware of anti-discrimination structure. Elaine Attard reports.
