Justice and Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg said yesterday that while amendments to the Refugee Act would lay down that migrants could not be held in detention for an unreasonable period of time, there would be a number of exceptions, such as when the identity and nationality of the immigrants concerned would not have been established. The exceptions, he said, had been copied word for word from Council of Europe recommendations.

The minister was speaking during a second sitting of the parliamentary Social Affairs Committee which discussed the situation of illegal immigrants.

He pointed out that there were only four or five persons who had been in detention for more than two years. These people had lost both their application for refugee status and their appeal, but they were still refusing to give their identity for repatriation purposes.

In such cases, Dr Borg asked, what should prevail, the stubbornness of such people not to cooperate, or the principle of freedom?

Mgr Philip Calleja, representing the Emigrants and Refugees Commission, said the commission had accommodated and assessed 3,153 immigrants, including 70 born in Malta up to 2002 when the Refugees Commissioner was appointed. A total of 2,271 of these immigrants were resettled in the US, Canada and Australia.

While their applications were being processed, these people had to depend on charity. Until 2001, Mgr Calleja said, there had been no social benefits for refugees except for free education and medical care, and such people could not work here. The commission believed that everyone had the right to work and it had helped such people to work. This concept had been understood even by the courts and these people had never been penalised by magistrates.

Among the refugees Malta had not utilised in the past, Mgr Calleja said, were professionals and specialists who could have contributed a lot and whose expertise was found valuable by other countries.

Speaking on the resettlement of refugees, Mgr Calleja said Malta should try to introduce the concept of burden sharing among other European countries, not least because several European countries accepted a quota of people from outside Europe.

Turning to the detention period, Mgr Calleja said a period should be established as to how long those who were refused refugee status should be kept in detention.

Labour MP Joe Abela, who was representing the Peace Lab, highlighted a number of positive developments in the sector but said there was still room for a lot of improvement.

For example, a coordinating committee which had been set up between NGOs and governmental departments had last met on November 13. No more meetings had since been held even though a number of issues concerning immigrants, including a suicide, riots and hunger strikes, had taken place.

This committee had been a forum where one could discuss issues, raise points and complaints. Had the committee been dissolved? Who was coordinating it?

(Later in the meeting, Dr Godwin Grima, permanent secretary in the Home Affairs Ministry, said the committee still existed but meetings had not been held since November due to a number of issues.)

Mr Abela said that the situation in detention camps would be much better if there were someone, who was not from the police or the army, responsible for their management.

He pointed out that while the process on the granting of refugee status was fast in Malta compared to other countries, immigrants in Malta remained in detention throughout, unlike in other countries.

The Commissioner for Refugees, Charles Buttigieg, said that between January 1, 2002 and last Sunday he processed 928 cases involving 1,166 persons.

A total of 76 persons were granted refugee status, 525 persons were granted humanitarian protection, 502 persons had their claims rejected, 18 cases involving 31 persons were withdrawn and 30 cases involving 32 persons were still in process.

Mr Abela stressed that a coordinated effort should be made to improve the situation regarding detention. This, he said, was no joke and was affecting immigrants' health.

While the Peace Lab understood that there had to be a period of time during which a person was detained, this period should be limited.

There were some, he said, who had been in detention for two years and four months. Such a period was devastating especially since the facilities at the detention centres were limited.

At Safi there had once been complaints about the food and he had suggested that the detainees prepare their own. This had been agreed upon but when it came to implementation, everything stopped, for security purposes.

And although detainees at Ta' Kandja were being allowed to go out for a number of hours, those at Safi were only allowed out for one hour.

Mr Abela said that the appeal process was a farce. In the case of a number of Eritreans, a one line reply had been given to an eight-page appeal and no decision had ever been taken in favour of the migrants.

Interjecting, Dr Borg pointed out that the number of cases that were upheld in the initial stage was much higher here than in Europe, so the chances of negative replies being overturned was lower.

The minister asked for a transcript of the debate to be sent to the Appeals' Board.

Police Commissioner John Rizzo said that although detention centres were no hotels, the police and the army tried to see to the basic needs of the detainees and gave them all they required. He said that following the last sitting of the committee he had even given instructions for newspapers to be given out at the centre, not necessarily newspapers of the day.

Committee chairman Helen d'Amato called for training to be given to officers from the police and the army and others working in such centres as this would be of assistance both to the persons involved and the detainees.