The Maltese authorities have registered progress with regard to the detention of irregular immigrants, according to a Council of Europe report on human rights which, however, raises serious concerns about the insufficient attention being paid to detainees' mental health.
Despite the traumas experienced by migrants and the psychological frailty caused by what is regarded as unjustified detention, there is no provision for on-the-spot psychiatric care, the report notes. Only the most serious psychiatric conditions are treated at the psychiatric hospital.
Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg is abroad and a spokesman said he might reply to the report in the coming days.
The follow-up report by the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights, published yesterday, assesses the progress made by Malta between 2003 and last year. The report will be forwarded to the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly.
After visiting Malta in 2003, the Commissioner for Human Rights, Alvaro Gil-Robles, was highly critical of the immigrants' detention conditions.
The present report is based on material supplied by the Maltese authorities, NGOs and international organisations, coverage in the media and the findings and conclusions of the follow-up visit by a delegation from the Commissioner's Office.
The report takes note that now no immigrant is to remain in detention longer than 12 months, though a number are kept for a maximum of 18 months.
A policy which is applicable to families, sick persons and pregnant women has been introduced gradually in response to cases and problems actually observed. It has led the various services involved to adopt procedures to facilitate speedy releases.
However, the current periods of maximum detention still appear excessive and inappropriate, the report says.
It points out that asylum seekers and irregular migrants have not committed any offence or been tried by any court, yet their systematic arrest and detention for as long as 18 months resembles a "prison sentence in all but name".
The report says that in the absence of a legal instrument laying down the responsibilities of individual administrative authorities and the setting time limits for drawing up the necessary documents, the waiting time for members of vulnerable groups remains haphazard. For instance, shortly before the commissioner's delegation visited Malta, 35 children and their parents had spent over eight weeks in detention before permission for their release was issued.
The commissioner welcomed the special arrangements applied to vulnerable groups but stressed the need for the Maltese authorities to apply them transparently to all persons requiring specific attention.
The commissioner regrets that, contrary to his recommendation, no legislation on the subject has been passed. The new measures now in place are the result of administrative practice albeit confirmed to a varying extent by government documents. It is clear that such practices are often introduced after the event, in an attempt to remedy some occurrence, he notes.
The fact that all the detainees are in a single structure without full dividing walls to cut down noise, together with the absence of windows at human height, adds to the feeling of "crampedness", the report says.
The Safi B-block remained in the same physical condition as the commissioner's 2003 visit, or indeed had deteriorated.
Nevertheless, the commissioner welcomed the investment and progress made, in particular towards relieving the overcrowding.
Nonetheless, he says, considerable efforts still need to be made urgently if migrants held at these detention centres are to have decent conditions in buildings protected from climate and with clean, working sanitary facilities.
The report questions the lack of immigrants' access to medical care. A doctor is present three mornings a week for 500 migrants detained at Safi Barracks alone. In comparison, the prison, with around 400 inmates, has three full-time doctors, a psychiatrist and two nurses.
With regard to maintenance of order, shock tactics are also used, the report says. For example, during the visit to B block at Safi, the detainees complained of searches which had been carried out to confiscate potentially dangerous items. The searches had been made at dawn, when the migrants were still asleep, by soldiers in law-enforcement gear, and had lasted several hours.
While the searches were going on, the foreign detainees were kept handcuffed outside the building. Some potentially dangerous instruments and knives were seized, but the searches mainly confiscated items which the migrants used as cooking utensils in improving the fare provided, the commissioner says.
"While it is not disputed that security has to be ensured, it must be pointed out that foreigners are not criminals and that the methods used with them should be non-violent and non-traumatising."
The report confirms the views shared by many journalists who were allowed in for the first time into the detention centres last week. Detainees are reduced to virtually total idleness. There is no intellectual, language, cultural or educational activity on offer, and the detention service does not have any social workers.
The commissioner welcomes the establishment of a unified detention service dealing with foreigners, as a genuine step forward in improved provision for foreign detainees.
The administration of the Marsa open centre is applauded for the way it encourages self-reliance, individual initiative and personal development. This approach, aimed at personal fulfilment and access to the labour market, is the first stage towards integration into society.
The commissioner congratulated the Maltese authorities on their efforts to accommodate migrants at open centres, and asks them to open further centres modelled on the Marsa one.
He also welcomed the increase in the Refugee Commissioner's staff and the positive impact which this has had on processing time for asylum requests. The institution of Refugee Commissioner now seems adequately staffed to cope with forthcoming asylum requests if the number of requests remains at the present level.
However, the commissioner regretted that free legal aid is not available to asylum seekers going before the Refugee Commissioner.
Members of the European Parliament's Social and Justice Committee last week lambasted the conditions in which irregular immigrants are kept at detention centres.