MEPs want to close all detention centres

On the eve of a visit to Malta by a European Parliament delegation to look into the problem of illegal immigration, a number of MEPs from the Civil Liberties Committee (CLC) have called for detention centres to be closed in all EU member states.

Italian MEP Giusto Catania told a press conference in Brussels: "These centres violate human rights and individual freedoms but they do not deter illegal immigration nor help with the identification of immigrants."

Mr Catania argued against measures listed in a draft directive submitted by Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini last September suggesting that illegal migrants should not be kept in custody for more than six months. Instead, Mr Catania said illegal immigrants should only be kept for two to three days before going to asylum services where asylum requests would be processed. Malta also disagrees with Mr Frattini's suggestion but for a completely different reason. In Malta, illegal immigrants are held to a maximum of up to 12 months in custody and the Commission's suggestion, if approved, would half that detention period. The Maltese authorities fear this would encourage more illegal immigrants to take the risk and come to Malta.

Mr Catania told journalists that what he saw at detention centres in Lampedusa and the Spanish enclave of Melilla was worse than prisons and should be closed down. He referred to visits the committee made to detention centres in France and said that before their visit MEPs had not believed that what they had been told was possible.

However, he said he had been shocked by the lack of air and the general conditions he saw in French detention centres, describing conditions as unimaginable in Europe.

Echoing the Italian MEP's plight, the chairman of the CLC, Jean-Marie Cavada, said his committee would like to launch a European campaign, involving civil society, to get all detention centres closed down.

The European Parliament delegation will be visiting Malta at the end of this month. It will visit detention centres manned by the armed forces and the police. The delegation will be headed by another Italian MEP, Stefano Zappala, and will be submitting a report on the situation to the European Parliament.