Countermapping Migration at Sea
On the 9th of June 2025, the Malta Migration Archive was launched in Valletta.
“The Migration Archive sheds light on border violence in Malta. It systematically documents the many ways that the Maltese state and other actors obstruct mobility and settlement. The Archive documents state practices of non-assistance and pushbacks to Libya, while also collecting testimonies of people who are newly arrived in Malta. In both these ways, it counters the erasures of the state, its attempts to conceal this violence and its withholding of critical information about migration at sea and on land.
We are indebted to a multitude of collaborators and partners who have supported this project in Malta and beyond, including aditus, AlarmPhone, the Association for Justice, Equality and Peace, the Civil Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre SARchive, Moviment Graffitti, Search and Rescue Malta Network, and Spark 15. The work was supported by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (EDI-23/24-P0096).
In our work, we recognise the limits of ‘data’: the always incomplete nature of the information we hold, as well as the political exploitation of data that exists, especially the ways in which quantitative data feeds constructed migration ‘crises’. We therefore supplement quantitative data with more in-depth case studies and testimonies from people on the move. We also believe the Archive is part of a critical collective effort to expose border violence and hidden state practices.
This archive is thus conceived of as a counter-archive, countering erasure and forgetting. In our work, we hope to document the actions and inactions of states and other actors that cause so much harm and death, while also reflecting the tenacity of the human spirit, our fundamental relationship to mobility and migration as humans, and the ways that people create spaces of solidarity in Malta, the Mediterranean and beyond.
If you have any questions or would like to contribute to the Archive through, for example, testimonies, information about distress cases, or analysis of migration issues, please get in touch: info@maltamigrationarchive.org“
Wesbite – https://maltamigrationarchive.org/
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