A report conducted for the European Parliament on the EU-25’s immigration policies and detention centres has called upon the EU to politicaly recognise the specificities of Malta’s problems and plan actions for sharing responsibilities.
The report is authored by Solène Guérinot, who conducted meetings with main stakeholders including management staff from the detention services, the Organisation for the Integration and Welfare of Asylum Seekers which manages the open centre, and NGOs such as the Jesuit Refugee Service and Médecins du Monde.
But the report also invites Malta to “radically reform” its detention policy and conform to standards on the protection of fundamental rights it has signed up to.
According to the report, there is no legal limit to the duration of detention, which technically provides access to employment to asylum seekers after 12 months; but which can keep rejected asylum seekers detained up to 18 months.
“Detention conditions do not respect the human dignity of detainees: overcrowding, insalubrity, extremely poor hygiene, arbitrary regimes, deficient healthcare, information and legal aid systems, lack of interpreters, police brutality,” were among the conditions listed – but not delved into any further – in the report.
It said the Hal Far open centre, namely the tent village, “cannot remain in its current state but should be converted into a centre with proper buildings. In no circumstances should it be used to accommodate vulnerable persons.”
The report said the combination of both long duration and detention conditions meant the detention period was “propitious to the development of psychological disorders and can engender the social and psychological de-structuring of people who will then find it even more difficult to integrate on a long-term basis into Maltese society and whose first experience of Europe will have been synonymous with abuse and the infringement of their fundamental rights.”
However, the report noted that rejected asylum seekers are not left out on the streets. In Malta, all detainees, no matter what their status, are released after 12 months or 18 if they rejected. On release they are accommodated in open centres and received social assistances by means of a bi-monthly benefit. They are also usually authorised to free healthcare “but in practice have difficulty assessing healthcare,” the report continues.
The report also noted that the treatment of vulnerable persons in the centres was satisfactory. “The only problems encountered are the structural difficulties generally associated with the reception of asylum seekers.”
The report recommended that Malta deals with the phenomenon of migration through a long-term strategy and accept that repressive measures were dehumanising and ineffective, ultimately unable to stop the flow.
It proposed setting up cost-effective alternatives to detention, reducing detention periods, and ensure detention is also subject to judicial review.
It urged the improvement on the provision of information on detainee’s rights such as legal assistance, interpreters, standard procedures in all detention centres, and all available in the detainee’s own language. It also recommended awarding NGOs unrestricted access to assist detainees and increasing the number of social workers on site.
The report said access to healthcare had to be improved, as well as the physical conditions in the detention centres and open centres.

mvella@mediatoday.com.mt