The government yesterday decided to transfer about 80 Eritreans and Ethiopians from detention to an open centre.

The Home Affairs Ministry said the move, which involved those whose cases have been before the courts for a long time, was a gesture of goodwill.

The group comprises illegal immigrants who entered Malta in March and July of 2002.

The Jesuit Refugee Service is now asking why 14 other Eritreans - four being detained at Safi Barracks and 10 at Ta' Kandja - were not transferred as well. The 14, most of whom are in their 20s, had entered Malta in October 2002.

The government is under increasing pressure from various organisations, including Amnesty International, to release the Eritreans in question.

The 80 migrants will be dispatched to the open centre at Hal-Far which normally houses those granted refugee status and where facilities are similar to a hostel. However, their case is still pending and, therefore, they cannot be released.

The Council of Europe's Commissioner for Refugees is shortly expected to publish what promises to be a highly critical report of the situation of asylum seekers in Malta. The government has made it clear it intends to reduce the detention period.

Fr Dionysius Mintoff, who last Saturday made a plea on behalf of illegal immigrants from Eritrea spending their second Christmas in Malta in detention, yesterday thanked Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg and Police Commissioner John Rizzo for the decision to move the migrants.

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