Illegal immigrants complain of `inhumane conditions` and ask not to be repatriated

Eritrean immigrants being detained in Malta and who say they have been refused refugee status, have made a heartfelt appeal to the refugee commissioner not to repatriate them.

The Eritreans also hit out at the local authorities for keeping them in what they described as "inhumane conditions" over the past three months.

But in an immediate reply, the police and the emigrants` commission defended the practices used and said each case was treated on its own merits.

The Eritreans, who berthed illegally at Xlendi Bay cooped up in a small boat last March, spelled out their plight in a letter to The Times.

The letter is signed by Zeru Tekle Haimanot and Kehasse Negusse on behalf of the Eritrean immigrants.

There are 119 Eritreans in all, including women and children, being detained at Ta` Kandja and the new immigrants` centre at Hal Far.

The eastern African country of Eritrea has a long history of political persecution. In 1998, a border conflict flared up when Eritrea and Ethiopia were at war, costing the lives of thousands and causing severe hardship to millions.

The complex humanitarian situation was made worse by three consecutive years of drought in certain parts of Eritrea.

Ethiopia began withdrawing its troops from Eritrea last year and relations between the two governments have since improved.

Only last May 8, the United Nations refugee agency said it was withdrawing the refugee status of hundreds of thousands of Eritreans because peace had been restored after decades of conflict.

But the illegal immigrants in Malta have different views about their domestic scene, claiming their government was run by a dictatorial military leadership.

"The government is having a hard and fast rule of inflexible principles, to which any sign of opposition leads to automatic murder or torture," Mr Haimanot and Mr Negusse say in the letter.

"Taking into consideration all these harsh and miserable problems, we left and fled our country - some of us from different prisons.

"All we wanted to do was live and survive in any place where we could get peace and safety."

After escaping from Eritrea, the group said they found themselves in Libya where they stayed with minimal amounts of food and water in the Sahara desert for 15 days.

They then tried to flee via the Mediterranean to Italy, where they thought they could get the best protection possible.

Due to lack of oil and fuel, the boat transporting them to Italy had to change course and divert to Gozo rather than risk a tragedy at sea.

"After having verified our real and clear cases to the local refugee commission in Malta, who was fed inconsistent information to our claims, we were rejected refugee status.

"We can`t and don`t want to return to the government back home. If we did so, it would mean death or torture, especially since most of us are supporters of the opposition group. This is why we took all these terrifying life risks in the sea."

Mr Haimanot and Mr Negusse complained about their accommodation standards in Malta where, they claimed, they were being denied basic human rights.

"We don`t know why we are still being detained, after three months, within such irritating locked rooms. As prisoners we don`t have a lawyer and no one takes care of us save for two or three individual visitors," they said.

They claimed the situation was so bad it was leading to serious mental disturbances among the inmates - to the extent that one member had to be taken to a psychiatric hospital.

Mr Haimanot and Mr Negusse made three appeals to the public:

"We need to be recognised by any humanitarian agents to come and visit us so that they can realise what we are living in."

They said they were in need of some interested aid agents like Churches and NGOs to help them leave Malta instead of being confined to locked rooms.

The Eritreans also appealed for "responsible humanitarians" to check their situation so that they can be "saved" from being repatriated to Eritrea.

When contacted, refugee commissioner Charles Buttigieg said he was bound by confidentiality and could not divulge any personal information as to whether the Eritreans would be dispatched back to their homeland.

Mr Buttigieg stressed that the authorities gave illegal immigrants the reasons why they were or were not granted refugee status. They also had a right to appeal any decision.

Emigrants` commission director Philip Calleja said that every case was treated seriously.

But, he said, illegal immigrants were often unable to provide certain information, sometimes even trivial details like their date of birth.

He said that some of the illegal immigrants now applying for refugee status were desperately trying to be reunited with relatives in Italy and the US.

Mgr Calleja said the situation in Eritrea was once known to be desperate, though the matter had improved of late.

When contacted, a spokesman for the police strongly denied the claims being made by the immigrants about their conditions.

"Nobody is treated badly. They have all the necessary sanitary conditions, they get two to three meals a day. We tend to anybody who`s not feeling well, they even have a basketball court where they can entertain themselves.

"But at the end of the day it`s a detention centre and there are still restrictions we have to abide by," the spokesman said.