Raphael Vassallo
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees is currently looking into allegations of a violent strip search operation at the Hal Safi Barracks earlier this month, in which at least one man is reported to have sustained serious injuries.
This week MaltaToday received unconfirmed reports alleging mistreatment of a number of immigrants by Detention Services (DS) personnel, during a strip search allegedly conducted on 7 April – a week after violent riots broke out in the same Safi Barracks.
According to eyewitness accounts, several of the immigrants involved claim to have been subjected to electric shock treatment using stun guns, and also that a full cavity search was carried out using a pen.
One immigrant claims to have sustained a serious injury to the leg after being stepped on by a DS soldier, and that he was afterwards denied medical treatment.
UNHCR’s representative Neil Falzon has meanwhile confirmed that the United Nations agency received a report about the same incident, but declined to go into any detail regarding its contents. “What I can say is that we have informed the Prisons Visitors’ Board of these allegations, and that we are currently in contact with the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs for a clarification of what really took place.”
According to an eyewitness account given to MaltaToday, the raid began shortly before daybreak when a number of armed soldiers in full combat gear – including rifles – irrupted into living quarters at Safi, forcing immigrants out of their beds and down to a lower level, where they were allegedly handcuffed and made to lie on the floor.
One by one they were then called to a corner where a full cavity search was allegedly conducted, according to the eyewitnesses, a pen was used to examine cavities. Migrants also claim that money and other personal items were discovered and confiscated in the course of the search.
However, from MaltaToday’s inquiries it is understood that a number of homemade weapons also featured among the confiscated property; and that some of the immigrants involved had been identified as ringleaders in the violent unrest at the detention centre the previous month, in the course of which a DS soldier had been seriously injured.
Eyewitnesses to the April 7 raid suggested it may have been in retaliation for this incident, and singled out DS Commander Lt. Col. Brian Gatt as having co-ordinated this operation.
The same source also claimed verbal abuse, including statements by DS personnel to immigrants to the effect that they were “never going to be released” from detention.
A ministry spokesperson insisted a ‘search’, and not a raid, was carried out by DS personnel assisted by army personnel.
“Invariably, searches are carried out at any known place of detention worldwide and Malta’s detention centres should not be viewed as an exception. Legally, the DS has the right to conduct such searches to ensure that safety within detention centres is maintained. Safety is of paramount importance for the resident immigrants as well as for the staff employed at places of detention.”
The spokesperson confirmed that immigrants were handcuffed and made to sit on the floor, and denied any violence. “The only injury sustained was by one immigrant who began to bang his head against a gate in C Block’s guardroom. This particular immigrant had assaulted a DS member some days earlier and was removed from association to be investigated by Police.”
The ministry denied any cavity searches were carried out.
Items such as money (€110 plus $100 found between one of the immigrant’s buttocks) and mobile phones were recovered during this search. Immigrants found in possession of such items were given a receipt for the items and told to recollect them upon release from detention.
The ministry said that other items recovered included “caches of improvised weapons consisting of iron rods, wooden staves with glass embedded at one end, metal flails and other metal pointed objects stashed in mattresses. All these have been registered.”
“The allegation that a stun gun was used is ludicrous since stun guns are not issued to DS or AFM personnel. Persons in detention have a right to be visited by a doctor on request. All immigrants involved in the search had access to a doctor on request, as per normal practice. The previous day a female nurse had been assaulted by two immigrants.”
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