Refugee: to be or not to be

In its report Three Imprisoned Over Black Money Scam (August 18), The Times, quoting from the court judgment, said that: "Police investigations revealed that the person referred to as Tom was Kaba Konate, an immigrant who was granted refugee status in Malta".

This is not correct. The said person from Ivory Coast, accused of being the ring leader of an extortion gang involved in the production of counterfeit money, but who seems to have left Malta before he could be apprehended, had appealed before my board against the decision of the Refugee Commission rejecting his earlier claim for refugee status after due process, claiming now that some new evidence he had been waiting for had finally become available.

In an open hearing held in the Refugee Appeals Board's offices at Fort St Elmo on May 23, 2005, during which Mr Konate was duly assisted by his lawyer, my board conducted a lengthy interview with him in French as well as, at his request, with a young married Maltese woman who claimed to be bearing his child.

Two days later, after further deliberations, the board unanimously rejected the appeal and duly informed the appellant accordingly in a four-page judgment dated May 25, 2005. This decision was immediately copied to all those who had or who had expressed an interest in the case, including the police.

In a report in The Times on September 27, 2005 entitled Businessman Testifies In Black Money Case, it was stated that: "Police Inspector Michael Mallia, who is prosecuting with Inspector Kevin Borg, explained how following Mr Camilleri's report, investigations revealed that Tom was in reality a refugee called Kaba Konate who resided in Bugibba".

On the following day, I wrote to the Commissioner of Police attaching The Times law report, and alerting him to this misunderstanding. Mr Konate was not a refugee. This further clarification, together with a copy of the board's judgment and of The Times' report, was copied to all those who had or who had expressed an interest in the case, including the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Konate's two Maltese lawyers, the Emigrants Commission, the Jesuit Refugee Service and UNHCR.

The appellant had actually escaped from detention but was later recaptured by the police. He was then released from detention on April 16, 2005.

The latest item appearing on The Times on August 18, 2006, reporting what was stated in the court judgment that this appellant had been "granted refugee status in Malta", is not so much misleading as disconcerting. It also renders a disservice particularly to those relatively few bona fide asylum-seekers who have been justly granted refugee status in Malta according to law.