A pregnant woman who was unexpectedly fired from her job is facing deportation from Malta thanks to the country’s strict policy when it comes to non-EU workers.

The woman, who has been living in Malta legally for six years, was working on a two year fixed contract when she fell pregnant. Her employer terminated her contract soon after citing a lack of sales.

As according to law, her employer did and will continue to pay half her monthly salary until the end of the contract. However, she had just 10 days to find another job or face being deported.

It wasn’t easy to find an employer who was willing to employ a pregnant woman in such a short period, but thankfully she was able to find a job. Unfortunately, a slight delay in submitting her paperwork to Identity Malta means she’s facing being booted out of the country.

The paperwork was submitted 24 days after she got her termination letter, outside the 10-day limit, meaning she will now how to face an immigration board.

“Now, I’m five months pregnant and without health insurance,” she said.

At present, Identity Malta has employed a strict procedure when dealing with non-EU workers. Beyond the ten working days limit, non-EU workers are required to submit new forms detailing their new employment every time they find a new job. 

They also need a comprehensive health insurance policy, showing all aspects being covered, which supports the applicant in the eventuality of requiring any type of medical assistance or hospitalisation during the whole period of stay in Malta.

This includes undergoing medical tests and taking several vaccines, such as the COVID-19 vaccine, the measles vaccine and the polio vaccine. 

It has created a bureaucratic nightmare for non-EU workers, who immediately face the prospect of deportation if they are fired from their job. 

The policy is not new, however, sources described a growing sense of frustration of seeing many good workers leave the island because of the timeframe.

Lovin Malta recently reported on the challenging landscape third-country nationals have to navigate when trying to find work in Malta.

From workers falling storeys on work sites, becoming grievously injured only to be discarded on the side of the road, to other workers spending months working for companies only to be taken for a ride, the men and women within the group are among the most vulnerable in Malta.

And it’s not just potential employers – even though it’s illegal, the practice of migrants paying significant fees to Maltese work agencies to acquire permits is widespread on the island.

Finance Minister Clyde Caruana has launched a new employment strategy in the country, which also focused on the issue of foreign workers and third-country nationals, whose salaries have remained stagnant for a decade.

Caruana was the mastermind in 2014 of the government’s employment policy, which saw a major influx of foreign workers in the country and a significant number of Maltese workers returning to the workforce.

It remains to be seen whether anything will be done in the short term. 

What do you think of the issue?