It has taken me a while to write part two of the visit to the Marsa Centre because I found it difficult to express my contrasting views on the experience.
When we arrived at the Centre, I still had in mind some of the enthusiastic comments I had heard a day earlier during the debate and my expectations were high. As we arrived, the reason why Terry Gosden had been adamant about feeling so far from what he would like to achieve in Marsa, became immediately clear. To my eyes the building, which was once a school, seemed to be in “the middle of nowhere�. In the courtyard several young guys were standing, some of them were chatting, others playing football and others just seemed to be waiting…….!
We were greeted in Terry’s office and accompanied in the main living space where they have organised a small bar and a TV corner, which at that moment showed football matches. Then we were given the chance to talk to people and look around. They were obviously curious about the purpose of our visit, but seemed used to people going to the centre. Some of them hoped we were sent by other EU governments to choose some of them to take to our countries! We were a disappointment indeed!
I talked to a guy who showed me around and translated for others as well. A few asylum seekers complained they had not managed to see a lawyer yet to make sure their cases were heard properly and feared they could be sent back to the country of origin. A family who had been sent back from another EU country according to the Dublin Convention, worried about the future of their children and the fact that they were not attending school in Malta.
Showing me and other colleagues around some of them underlined the problems coming from the fact that so many people have to share the same room (once class rooms), that the bathrooms are outdoor, that certain parts of the buildings have no working lights, etc…… They knew they were free to go out and find a job, but they claimed it was really difficult for them to actually find one in Malta.
It was clear now, that this place was not what I expected. I started wondering whether it was the fact of being used to the extreme conditions of certain closed detention centres that made other people describe this place as an example to follow! But I also realised that they probably referred to the potential of this place. Given the situation, the migrants in the centre and their guide Terry were actually trying their best. With time and more support this place could turn into the model Terry Gosden has in mind and manage to become a useful place of transition were people can recover from the experience of their journey and regain the necessary confidence to start taking care of their own lives again. Clearly, a great obstacle to their empowerment is their often unclear legal position and lack of future prospects. The management of the Marsa Centre cannot be left alone in this and I think needs help to be able to let people help themselves.

Last December, the Eurofor conference in Malta was interesting. A variety of papers on different subjects were presented. This gave me a good chance to hear about areas of research in migration studies which are not directly linked to mine, moreover, I had the opportunity to meet a few friends and other researchers.
Of particular importance to me the two panels on Malta and a trip to the Marsa Open Centre where successful refuge claimants and people with humanitarian protection are accommodated upon release from detention.
Terry Gosden’s presentation, during one of the panels on Malta, and the following debate gave us a first introduction to the issue. He explained what the centre is, how it works, who the residents are and what they do.

He talked about the severe psychological conditions in which people arrive at the centre, traumatised by a conflict in the country of origin, a terrible journey to arrive to Malta and the previous experience in the close detention centres. Then he focused on the way in which he manages the centre and tries to motivate people to regain their agency through self and group empowerment. He stressed the point that they “are not a charity!�, the centre provides people with accommodation and other basic needs, and with guidance for self-organisation encouraging them to pursue certain initiatives as setting up “ethnic restaurants� for residents or buying a TV, or organising prayer groups, etc.

The debate following Gosden’s presentation was characterised by positive comments from some of the Maltese attendees who knew already about the centre and by others who expressed curiosity about the model and its possible application elsewhere in Europe. However, Gosden answered to these comments and questions stressing how far the centre he runs is from what it would like it to be and what the residents, as human beings, deserve. So I was left with even more curiosity about the centre and the way it operates that was clarified when I finally visited it few days later.

I will write about this in the next post. Here I simply want to add a note on the internal debate among researchers about whether visiting the centre was actually appropriate. Some people felt the experience would have felt like visiting a showcase of “human despair� and preferred not to come. Others thought it was important to see first hand what the centre is like and considered that our visit could have been also an interesting chance for the residents to meet other people, talk and pass the time. The most surprising thing for me was the discovery that for some colleagues this was the first time they ever visited a centre where immigrants live and had the chance to talk to so many of them. Too much work behind the desk I guess! Time to make time for some valuable fieldwork…..