Detention of asylum-seekers

Manuel Fenech, on behalf of the Third World Group, writes:

The issue of irregular immigration has been heavily politicised in the last four year, thus becoming complicated by mass xenophobia which is fuelled by the strict detention policy and complete omission of efforts to educate and integrate.

Third World Group is a small NGO manned by volunteers dedicated to social justice. Some of us have first-hand experience of working with asylum-seekers in detention and in open centres. It is evident to all that many of these people are treated unfairly by the Maltese system that is causing needless suffering. During the past four years countless detainees have suffered from depressive illness requiring admission for psychiatric care. There have also been several suicide attempts, one of which was fatal.

There are three main aspects we wish to point out:

Arbitrary (meaning automatic) detention is the most inhumane and expensive way of treating asylum seekers until their application is processed. Detention gives Maltese society the impression that these people as 'criminals', and this, in turn, reinforces and activates the latent intolerance in our society. Alternatives to detention exist and open centres are used in most European countries.

If asylum-seekers have to be detained, then this period of detention must be reduced to the barest minimum and conditions must be humane. The current situation leaves much to be desired. Detainees receive very little information about the state of their application. They don't know whether or when they will be deported; if they are going to be detained, they don't know whether this will last for a minimum of 12 or a maximum of 22 months because this depends on the policy adopted at the time. The local media must have access to the detention camps.

The phenomenon of immigration is a complex one: if we look at the local situation in isolation we risk losing sight of the root causes. The issue of immigration from the South to the North has to be understood in its geographical and historical context. It is pointless to pump millions of dollars of relief aid into the poorer countries if economic disadvantages caused by so-called "free" trade, the ever flourishing arms industry in the North, and many other inequities continue to sap the lifeblood of the South.