AD calls for reduction of detention to six months

Alternattiva Demokratika has called for strict law enforcement to fight the exploitation of illegal immigrants as cheap labour and for them not to be treated as second-class citizens.

The Green party also appealed for the introduction of a maximum six-month detention period as it launched a position paper on illegal immigration yesterday.

The paper deals with detention centres, social inclusion and law enforcement, among others.

Speaking during a news conference in the presence of Austrian MEP and Green Party spokesman Ulrike Lunacek, AD leader Harry Vassallo said his party was proposing the setting up of a European Refugee Commission to make political asylum uniform across the EU.

In its four-page document, AD said migrant workers should have the right to join a trade union.

Integration involved the recognition of a person's rights and obligations, irrespective of race.

Referring to detention as a "necessary evil", AD said it believed maximum duration should be cut from 18 to six months - for humanitarian and logistic reasons.

Conditions at detention centres were worse than in prison. It was inhumane to lock up people who had not committed criminal offence, AD said.

The six months' detention should serve for security and health screening.

Detention centres should not be run solely by the armed forces because soldiers could not be turned into social workers. The AFM detention service should run the centres for reasons of security while a government-appointed NGO should look after the daily administration, providing social workers, psychologists and legal aid.

In order to avoid open centres becoming life-long settlements, there should be proper law enforcement against those who refuse to employ immigrants or to rent them accommodation.

For social inclusion to materialise, immigrants need to be given skills in integration including Maltese and English language classes and debates on European culture.

AD said that while it backed joint border patrols, one had to ensure that migrants sent back to their country did not suffer human right violations.

Ms Lunacek, who is on a fact-finding mission, said the European Greens felt that illegal immigration should be considered as a European and not a local problem.

She has visited the Safi detention centre to see for herself how the situation is being handled.