It is paradoxical that as we read about our brand new hospital beginning to operate, we also read about the way detained boat people with chicken pox were treated.
We have spent millions on a hospital, which some argue is more than we really need in terms of capacity, and yet we could not find the cash to properly hospitalise infectiously ill immigrant detainees.
We rub out Iraq’s debt, which I could not understand, and our leaders speak internationally on fighting poverty abroad, which is commendable, but we ignore it on our doorstep, which is not.
Before I even start on this, I want to make it clear that I as much as anyone, except for the dedicated few, have sometimes put the problem of detained immigrants on the backburner and dealt with other issues.
I greatly admire the handful of lawyers, doctors, voluntary and other workers, who despite their own pressures have unstintingly given support to the detained immigrants. I applaud their courage in speaking out despite the wave of racism and personal threats, and regret not giving them more support through more coverage.
Disconcerting and alarming reports are surfacing through a human rights violation civil case in the Constitutional Court initiated by an Eritrean immigrant Tafarra Besabe Berhe against the Principal Immigration Officer and the Justice and Home Affairs Minister.
It is not that journalists do not get certain information from time to time. The problem is that usually the people who inform are reluctant to be quoted, which is understandable, and getting verification is not easy, since freedom of the press is very limited in this area.
The Minister, Tonio Borg has refused to give the media access to the detention centres and editors leave out when in doubt.
Although they have no excuse when there is no doubt.
Mr Berhe, a detainee at the Hal Far Lyster Barracks since he landed in Malta in October last year, is claiming that his human rights were violated due to the lengthy proceedings for asylum and the inhumane conditions of detention that included a crowded centre and lack of appropriate hygienic facilities and medical and legal services.
We all knew that conditions at the detention centres were bad, and I often think of how lucky I am not to have been born in Africa, although the issue never featured on Tista Tkun Int.
But we did not know they were that bad. Although Josie Muscat, hyping it up as is his wont and also giving out contradictory messages – perpetuating antagonism saying that the illegal immigrants were freeloaders (“jieklu, jixorbu u jitlibsu b’xejn”) and then claiming “We have nothing against them personally because they are fleeing problems in their countries” – got the cat out to scare the pigeons, by claiming that we were facing new illnesses because of the illegal immigration problem.
Surprisingly, a few days later we get a month-old court evidence report on the appalling way people with serious medical conditions at the detention centres were being treated.
A doctor who was employed with Medicare Services Limited and worked in medical clinics at detention centres gave evidence that when more than six people were diagnosed with chicken pox, they were herded into a windowless room, used to isolate troublemakers.
So the authorities were pretty careful about keeping infection from spreading, but not so careful about caring for the patients.
A question that kept hopping up in my brain like the icons sometimes do on my computer, as I read the report last week, was why the doctor’s damning evidence was only published a month later? Was it stifled? If so why?
The doctor had started telling the judge that during her visits to the detention centres she had come across widespread infections and diseases such as scabies (skin infection caused by mites) infestations and fungal infections.
She went on to explain how immigrants were treated for infestations but that they inevitably reappeared since their clothes and shoes could not always be treated efficiently. The situation was aggravated by the low standard of hygiene and overcrowding.
The facts about the chicken pox episode emerged when the judge questioned the doctor further on action taken in cases of infestation. The example she gave was that when seven or eight migrants contracted chicken pox there were no facilities to isolate them.
So they ended up in a small windowless (hence, I presume airless) room, normally used for punishment, or isolating troublemakers, which she described as a cell. She also said that she had seen urine on the ground, and she believed they had no access to the showers. “They eat there, they defecate there, all in one room”.
Her assessment was that rather than helping the patients they were put in an area, which would cause their condition to deteriorate further. They were let out of the unhygienic ‘ward’ three or four days after being treated with anti-viral medication.
Tonio Borg, the minister responsible, suddenly woke and hurriedly set up a Board he had spoken about three years ago, to monitor the detention centres. Apparently, one of its aims is to form a liaison between the public and the detention centres, but it does not look like we are going to get any more information than we are getting now, because the Board’s chairman has been quoted as saying “it would not be the Board’s practice to automatically make public the findings of its investigations or its recommendations.”
It would be up to the ministry to release any information and we know what that means don’t we!
The ministry is challenging the doctor’s evidence claiming that the quarantined sick migrants had been isolated for six days in a large room adjacent to the cells, and “had every access to the toilet and shower rooms and slept in two cells, which were not locked up”. So was it a cell, two cells, or a large room?
And so why is the Board looking into the claims given in evidence by a medical doctor about the maltreatment of immigrants in Hal Far and Hal Safi?
The doctor had also been asked whether she had ever seen beatings at the detention centres, to which she said she had seen one case in Safi, “I saw an illegal immigrant who was handcuffed squatting on the floor while an officer was hitting him with a metal bin lid and I urged him to stop.”
The officer told her that the illegal immigrant had scratched him and she told the judge that she had seen a minor scratch.
What I could not understand when reading about the case was why the judge was so patient with the defence when they produced a witness, a senior architect with the Building and Engineering Department. The architect took up the court’s precious time fudging about the design of the sites used as detention centres, as though that has any relevance to whether the detainees were treated humanely or not.

Dancing on the walls
Life, however, does have its lighter moments and Wednesday evening was one of them. Fascinated, I watched performers abseiling and dancing on the walls, in aid of the girls’ best friend – diamonds.
The Milan based Kataklò Italian acrobatic dance company had me enthralled with their spectacular show at the Timeless, Diamonds International exposition of the new collections of top international exclusive timepieces and jewellery brands.
Luxury and film stars were the theme of the evening. Snippets of film were screened, which the choreographer played with in an original and riveting way. The performers danced superbly adding a new dimension to ‘centre stage’ and the whole show – lighting, costumes, props and pace – made it such a joy to watch such an accomplished group of artists, thanks to the directors of Diamonds International.

pamelapacehansen@gmail.com