• Ethics (Year 7)
  • Subject Focus: The Human Community
    • I can distinguish between freedom rights and welfare rights.
  • Subject Focus: Questions that are fundamental to Human Experience
    • I can recognise the consistency of behaviour and the equal recognition of the same rights for others that one claims for oneself, as a principle of justice.
    • I can explain the idea of freedom as having the power to choose
  • Subject Focus: ​Contemporary Moral Language and its Central Concepts and Metaphors
    • I can explain what rights mean referring to the UN Charter of Children’s Rights and the UN Charter of Human Rights.
    • I can articulate the rule of justice that equally recognises the same rights for others that one claims for oneself.
• Environmental Studies – Human Migration
• PSCD – Developing healthy and respectful relationships; Citizenship
• Social Studies: Social Groups and Social Institutions; Power and Politics
• Cross-curricular themes
  • Literacy
  • Digital Literacy
  • Learning to learn
  • ESD
  • Education for Diversity

Energizers + Opening Activity (15 min.):

Freedom of Movement is introduced to the group by asking the group if they know how to play chess. The educator asks some students that do know how to play if all pieces (pedini) are able to move the same way. In the game, the pieces indeed do not all have the same movements.

Next, the educator asks the students what they understand by ‘Freedom of Movement’. Some definitions are prompted and written down on a board or a document screen shared. Then the article from the declaration of Human Rights (should the students not know, Human Rights should also be explained) is read (included in ‘Freedom of Movement and Passport Power.pptx).

Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 13: Right to freedom of movement

1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each State. 
2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country. 

Next, the document (or single images so educator can choose which ones) with the flag and chess movements is shared (it is based on the 2020 Passport Power Index) (see ‘Passport Power Countries’ on drive). It is explained to the students that in order to understand whether freedom of movement is respected, they will imagine that some countries are chess pieces. Some examples from the documents are seen. Students should realise on their own that there is the ‘passport power’ written at the bottom under the flags. Should they not mention it, students should be prompted to look well at the details.

Note to educators: Originally, this activity was designed so that the flags and movements fold in a card and each student gets one. They would have to move from point A to point B in the classroom, and of course, some of them would reach it much quicker. Some would not be able to move. Should this be an option in the future, it can be organised as such.

After some examples are seen, the educator explains passport power. To introduce this, the educator can check what passports the students have.

Passport Power and restrictions (15 min.):

The concept of passport power is introduced to the students (see powerpoint). Not all passports are equal. To demonstrate this, the below examples (also found in ppt) are used. The students as a whole group (if possible, eg, online, they can be divided into smaller groups) are told they are from the country of the example. They have to migrate because they are being persecuted/there is a conflict and want to ask for Asylum. They will make their way to Malta and then potentially move to other EU countries. 

The students would look at the Annexed country cards and discuss what they could do. The flights in this case are based on December 2020 estimated and also October 2019 estimates. The educator explains that unsafe boat crossings cost thousands of Euro (which are usually community efforts). The students are told to ignore the covid ban and imagine it’s not in place at the moment, they get 5 minutes to look at the card properly and discuss between them then they are asked:-

• Are the flights, visas and passports expensive?
• Are the tickets cheap compared to thousands of Euros
• Does your country have any restrictions?
• Anything else you notice from your country?

Note to educators: should a computer lab be an option, the students can also look up this information for themselves. Please note that due to covid, there are less flights and the prices are much more expensive, hence why last year’s estimates were also shown.

Digital Alternative:-

Students are still given the cards but using tablets/electronic devices must follow those steps:

1. Students are given the country, then they check the Global Passport Power Rank to see if there are any restrictions for them using https://www.passportindex.org/ 
2. Students check how much their passport costs via google or https://www.passport-collector.com/passport-fees-around-world-2018-2/ 
3. Students check how much a ticket from their country to Malta costs in a specific month indicated by the trainer using www.skyscanner.net / www.jetradar.com 
4. Students who need visas then should check where they need to apply for it on https://identitymalta.com/where-to-apply/ or through a search engine. (This information is not available for all countries, that’s the point of them checking).

The educator asks students if they found some interesting things and asks some of the questions from the non-digital alternative.

Concluding Remarks (10 min.):

The educator starts by asking students ‘So why do you think that some people, when plane tickets are not so bad (usually, pre-covid but even with covid estimates they are cheaper than their fees for boat crossings + not all asylum seekers come by boat), choose unsafe boat travel?’ 

Some facts (not all) are then mentioned to students (see powerpoint – it has the facts).

1. The 1951 Convention on Refugees — created after the shameful turning away of Jews fleeing Nazi Germany — obliged its signatories to accept refugees, even if they have no documents, no visa, no passport, and no resettlement authorisation. There is no such thing as an “illegal asylum seeker.” Malta is a  signatory to the 1951 Convention its 1967 Protocol since 1971.
2. Moreover, even with a passport (and not everyone may have it), it is not easy and sometimes impossible to fly to certain countries for purposes of Asylum. Migrants who travel on boats pay thousands of Euro, sometimes collected from their community to be able to make the unsafe journey. Flights from Somalia to Malta cost around 600 Euro, from Eritrea to Malta around 400 Euro! Visa= apply at an embassy and wait for months
3. Asylum seekers pay a lot of money to travel, so they would be able to afford the ticket however, airlines will be fined if they allow anyone to travel to Europe or the U.S. without a visa. They do not actually require visas, as per the 1951 Refugee Convention but there is a EU directive that orders airlines to pay fines if they allow anyone to board a plane without a visa, but it also states that the rule does not apply to refugees!
4. Airlines are afraid of heavy fines as they are the ones who in a few seconds (where it takes embassies and commissions months) they have to decide if someone has a right to claim asylum. Knowing this, migrants choose other options.
5. Recital 3 of the EU airline directive states that signatories have to apply the directive “without prejudice to the obligations resulting from the 1951 Geneva Convention” The directive should not prevent refugees from seeking asylum. But it does. Refugees fleeing conflict zones are often unable to obtain passports, let alone visas, partly because most embassies close in war-torn countries or in failed countries, and migrants may not even have time to grab their passports if they have one.
6.  25.9 million refugees globally — the highest level ever recorded (Half of the world’s refugees are children)
7. 80% of refugees are hosted in developing countries (can show the amnesty graphics)
8. Despite this, from the Asylum applications and boat arrivals, it is also evident that some Asylum Seekers do come by plane. It should not matter how people come here as the human right of Movement is Universal and not everyone, as we have seen, has the same opportunities. Countries should provide safer passages by removing restrictions or opening more embassies. Currently, the system is not sustainable.

Thanking them for their attention and saying goodbye.

Educators Activity Notes

Presentation: Freedom of Movement and Passport Power

Passport Power Countries

Freedom of Movement Definition

General Passport Index 

Henley Passport Index (best use the other index above)

COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 2001/51/EC 

Blog Post: Why don’t refugees fly?

Identity Malta 

Passport fees around the World 

Minimum Wage by Country (CRHRP) 

Visa Fees at a glance

Global Refugee Crisis: Statistics and facts