Call for national strategy on migrants

The Jesuit Refugee Service has urged the government to map out a national strategy for irregular immigrants to replace a "flawed" system of detention, which the organisation believes is fuelling racism and xenophobia.

Detention was doing nothing more than criminalising asylum-seekers, normalising exclusion and posing a financial burden, according to JRS director Pierre Grech Marguerat.

However, the JRS admitted that there was no clear-cut solution to the growing headache of illegal migration and it was only a concerted effort by all parties concerned that could yield a policy that respected human dignity. He was addressing a news conference to launch a new document published by JRS-Europe on the rights of detainees.

The fact that detention has shifted from being a means to facilitate the removal of designated individuals to a reception policy was extremely worrying, Fr Grech Marguerat said.

This permutation was in sharp contrast with the recent political agreement of the EU Council for Justice and Home Affairs which stated that EU member states "shall not hold a person in detention for the sole reason that he is an applicant for asylum".

Among other aspects, the EU clearly stipulated that soldiers were not trained to work with irregular immigrants, he said, and yet Malta's detention camps were managed by the armed forces.

He asked reporters to ponder on the fact that hundreds of boat people were being cooped up like prisoners for months on end without any accusation. Often, the living conditions left much to be desired and the immigrants were not allowed access to legal assistance.

"It's criminals that are put in jail not asylum seekers," Fr Grech Marguerat said.

He feared that the ever-increasing numbers of asylum seekers, coupled with the US-led war on terror, was wrongly leading to racism and a fear of immigrants.

JRS believed there was no clear-cut alternative to detention though non-custodial centres could provide ample reprieve for those seeking asylum.

JRS assistant director Katrine Camilleri said the facts and figures clearly stipulated that detention was not serving as a deterrent for illegal immigrants.

It was evident that irregular immigrants hardly had any information on their final destination and their fate was often dictated by traffickers.

Dr Camilleri said it was high time for the authorities to try and keep check of the exploitation of illegal immigrants, which was leading to cheap labour. The government should, instead, seek ways and means of integrating asylum seekers into the workforce through the legal channels.

The JRS report contains an overview of detention centres, EU policies of detention, as well as the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The information drawn up shows the discrepancy between the actual law and its practice.

JRS-Europe called on the European Parliament and the Council of Europe to draft a common definition of "detention" and "detention centres" and to compile and update a publicly accessible list of detention centres.