Peace Lab document highlights conditions at detention centres

Malta's handling of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers has come in for sharp criticism in a document which the Peace Lab presented to the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights, Alvaro Gilrobles last week.

The document, signed by Peace Lab director Dionysius Mintoff, OFM, and coordinator Joe Abela, describes the policy as "degrading" and "inhuman".

"The centre is of the opinion that mandatory imprisonment of asylum seekers violates international law," the document says.

Mr Gil-Robles, who is on a tour of EU candidate countries, was in Malta on a two-day visit during which he called at all the detention centres and held meetings with various ministers and representatives.

The commissioner has described the detention centres in Malta as "shocking" and needing "serious action".

He was also critical of the fact that asylum seekers were living in difficult conditions for an excessive lengthy period of time and it was "unacceptable" for them to be detained for one to two years before their application was processed.

The Peace Lab echoed this in the document it presented Mr Gil-Robles and said men, women and children were being kept as "prisoners" in detention for almost two years without having committed any offence.

While acknowledging the strain which the sudden influx of people has placed on Malta's resources, the island is still in breach of the Convention on the Rights of the Child which prohibits the imprisonment of children, except as a last resort for the shortest time possible, the document argues.

It was pointed out to Mr Gil-Robles that after Peace Lab officials visited the detention centres, they had repeatedly reported that children and adults were suffering both mentally and physically in the camps.

"Life in the detention camps is not easy. The people are demoralised and frustrated to the point of holding hunger strikes every now and then," the document says.

"The Peace Lab has witnessed an alarming situation developing in the camps with a number of detainees being admitted to a local psychiatric hospital for treatment - this as a direct result of extended detention."

The centre also highlighted the present miscommunication which existed because of the language barrier. Asylum seekers were not informed about their legal rights.

These people needed access to interpreters, lawyers, psychologists and non-governmental organisations, as well as to government officials for advice and help, it said.

There were also numerous complaints on overcrowding, lack of privacy and boredom, it concluded.