The Order of Malta's Ongoing Global Response to the Refugee Crisis
In 2014, approximately 207,000 refugees and migrants made their way across the Mediterranean to reach Europe. The medical teams of the Order of Malta’s Italian Relief Corps have been aiding migrants on board the Coastguard and Customs Officers’ patrol boats in the southern Mediterranean since 2008 and in the first half of this year, almost 30,000 migrants were given first aid and taken to safety by dedicated volunteers.
In France, the Ordre de Malte France has been supporting Iraqi refugees, distributing food and hygiene kits, as well as providing language courses and administrative support for their integration into society.
In Germany in 2014, 50,000 refugees were given shelter, medical care, and assistance with finding jobs by the Order of Malta, while around 150 asylum seekers per day received help finding a home.
In Ukraine, Malteser International provides psychosocial care to people displaced by the civil war.
In Hungary, the Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta has launched an emergency medical and relief programme to address the plight of over 32,000 refugees who have requested asylum in the country in the first quarter of the year. In Austria the Order of Malta is providing emergency aid to thousands of refugees on the border, and across the country.
| In Indonesia, the Order of Malta, through Malteser International, provides refugees with hygiene kits and mosquito nets, as well as special food for children, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers.
In Myanmar, the Order of Malta is also providing emergency medical relief at a camp containing some of the 120,000 Rohingyas, who have fled from religious persecution in the last three years. |
| In Africa, the Order of Malta has many well-established medical and social assistance programmes, supplying almost 8,000 internally displaced people in South Sudan with food, household articles, and agricultural supplies, over 12,000 South Sudanese refugees in Uganda with access to drinking water, and in the Democratic Republic of Congo emergency healthcare to people displaced by civil war. |
“We are present in Iraq, Lebanon and when possible through mobile clinics in Syria, as well as some African countries. We also have a presence on Italian coast guard ships providing medical services. In Germany we run reception centres and last year, more than 50% of the 400,000 asylum seekers in Germany went through our facilities where they spent their first ten days to two weeks. In France we offer legal advice to refugees and asylum seekers and in Hungary we provide first aid service.”
H.E. Albrecht Freiherr von Boeselager, Grand Chancellor of the Order of Malta
Read more News Stories
