Government defends detention policy

The government yesterday defended itself against sharp criticism levelled at its detention policy by the United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR.

On Tuesday, the UNHCR said Malta's detention policy was by far the strictest in Europe.

During a press briefing at the agency's Geneva headquarters, a UNHCR spokesman gave an account of last week's incidents at Safi Barracks.

The UNHCR said that hundreds of asylum seekers detained at Safi, up to 450, are housed in tent camps and, at times, women and children have had to share their tents with men who are not relatives "without adequate safeguards against sexual abuse".

The Justice and Home Affairs Ministry said that if Malta's detention policy is the strictest in Europe, as the UNHCR had said, it was worthy of note that "Malta is the smallest and most densely populated country in Europe".

The ministry added that the figures quoted by the UNHCR with regard to asylum seekers arriving in Malta were "misleading" because having 1,680 migrants entering the country in 2002, 568 reaching Maltese shores in 2003 and 1,400 arriving last year was "like having 140,000 migrants entering Italy in one single year".

The government said Malta has accepted over 53 per cent of all applications submitted by asylum seekers, "by far one of the highest approval rates in Europe".

"With regard to the incidents at Safi, the government ordered an independent inquiry a few hours after the occurrence of the incidents with an express mandate to enquire whether the use of force was justified and whether the exercise of such force, in the circumstances of the case, was excessive," the ministry said.

The government said it appreciated the UNHCR's appeal for proper burden sharing between EU member states, adding that until "such [an] idea is implemented, Malta cannot but apply a strict policy of detention".

At Tuesday's briefing, the UNHCR said it had sent a number of letters to the Maltese government requesting further dialogue but had not received any response after submitting a detailed report on the shortcomings of detention centres in June 2004.

A spokesman for the Justice and Home Affairs Minister told The Times yesterday that Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg has had regular meetings with UNHCR official Walter Irvine since June, adding that the minister's next meeting with him is scheduled for the end of January.

The spokesman insisted that the figures provided by the UNHCR as to how many migrants had reached Malta were incorrect.

Contradicting the UN refugees' agency's statistics, the spokesman said only the 2003 figure given tallied with the "real" figure.

He said 1,680 migrants, and not 350, had reached Malta's shore in 2002. On the other hand, 1,400 asylum seekers had entered in 2004, as opposed to the 674 which the UNHCR said had arrived in the first 10 months of last year.

Dr Borg told The Times last Sunday the government had set a limit to asylum seekers' detention. At the end of 2003, it had declared that migrants should not be detained for more than 18 months, prior to which detention had been open-ended.

Dr Borg said that besides the fact that the authorities released families with children, minors and people with health problems soon after their arrival, all detainees - even those whose application for a refugee or humanitarian status would have been refused - are released according to government policy.

The minister said that by the end of the month, applications for migrants release would no longer be processed by the central government but responsibility would fall on the Immigration Appeals Board.