Wanted: retired officers to man detention centres

The government's plan to beef up human resources at detention centres with retired police and army officers has failed to meet expectations, with only 16 personnel so far taking up the offer.

Parliamentary Secretary Tony Abela told The Times that another call for applications would be issued soon, adding that the government was hoping for a better response.

"So far the take-up has been nowhere near what we had in mind," he admitted. "We would have taken 100 had there been a good response."

The government is offering an annual salary of Lm4,325 over and above the service pension, which the officers would be able to retain while serving at the detention centres.

Although Wednesday's coordinated protests in Hal Far, Safi and Floriana turned out to be nothing like last year's infamous Safi incidents - in which a number of protestors were injured - they nonetheless exposed the lack of human and material resources the army is having to contend with.

Illegal immigrants tore down the wire fence both in Hal Far and Safi with relative ease and the army could not do much to stop them. It is estimated that there are some 1,200 illegal immigrants in the centres at present.

"We had fixed the fence since the Depasquale report (which had criticised the state of the fence at Safi) but if a crowd charges at the fences they will come down," said Lt Col Brian Gatt, the head of the detention centres.

"The reality is that these places are not prisons," he continued. "Moreover, for us it's a constant learning curve and to be honest we are still learning in many respects."

One of the points made by an immigrant allowed to speak to the press during the protest was that they needed to have pastimes to kill time, such as educational programmes.

This issue was raised during last year's conference on illegal immigration and even recently by AD chairman Harry Vassallo after a tour of the Safi detention centre granted to him and a number of foreign MEPs.

But the army can hardly manage in the current circumstances, Lt Col Gatt explained when asked about the progress being made in introducing social and educational programmes at the detention centres.

Katrina Camilleri from the Jesuit Refugee Service said NGOs could not possibly take on such a responsibility, since they were already stretched.

"We make every effort to be present and tend to the immigrants' needs but the time and support we can offer is limited. The situation at the detention centres is bad because it's a mixture of boredom, uncertainty and lack of communication with the outside world."

When asked about these issues, Dr Abela said the government was trying to push forward with the original plan to appoint non-military personnel to deal with the illegal immigrants but that as things stood it was not possible.

"We've set up the single chain of command," he said, making reference to a proposal to set up a detention services unit. "We were trying to beef up the complement with this idea of having casual detention service officials but the take-up was disappointing. We hope that more will enrol this time round. Once we have sorted out security we can go for the next step."