The Refugee Commissioner

Mr. Mario Guido Friggieri was appointed Refugee Commissioner on the 28th June, 2007. He succeeded Mr Charles Buttigieg who was the first Maltese Refugee Commissioner, since the 1st January, 2002.

Mr Friggieri was born on the 5th December, 1951. He studied at St Aloysius College, from 1962 to 1968 after attending the Balzan/Lija Government Primary School. He joined the Jesuit Order in 1968. During the thirty years that he was a Jesuit, he studied in Italy and Belgium and his other studies and work entailed stays in other countries such as the United Kingdom, India and Libya. In Malta, he was a teacher at the St Philip Neri School (for children with special social problems), and at St Aloysius College itself, where he was a teacher for many years, a member of the Administration and also in charge of various responsibilities (Theatre, Publications, CYLO, sports, extra-curricular activities and others). He was also manager of Mount St Joseph Retreat House for about six years.

From 1999 to 2003, he was Assistant Head at the Sedqa St Maria Rehabilitation Programme. He was then appointed Team Leader for the Family and Psychological Teams. In July 2004 he was entrusted with the setting up of the Refugee Service Area Team within Appogg – the first attempt that had been made up to then to set up a social work group which will address problems encountered by immigrants. In this work, previous work experience with Refugees in both Italy and Belgium proved very useful.

Mr Friggieri is married to Oriola nee Kurti and has two children, Christopher-James and Clarissa-Angela.