Board to monitor detention centres

Detention centres will be overseen by an independent board, along the lines of a prison board, by the end of the month, Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg said yesterday.

Dr Borg had originally put forward such a proposal two years ago, but Jesuit Refugee Services director Fr Paul Pace confirmed, during a recent press conference, that it had not yet been set up.

When contacted, the Home Affairs Ministry said that towards the end of July the Cabinet had approved regulations setting up a special board on detention centres.

The idea behind the board is to introduce an accountable monitoring mechanism, overseeing the running of the centres, particularly in the light of the government's policy to bar journalists from entering them.

The centres, manned by the army and special civilian recruits, have been coming in for heavy criticism from local and international organisations due to immigrants' living conditions.

A report issued recently by the Prevention from Torture Committee (CPT) of the Council of Europe highlighted the progress that had taken place at the centres since its visit in 2005.

Yet, they remain shut off from public scrutiny as a matter of policy.

The minister had defended criticism for a lack of accountability in 2005, when he proposed to set up the board.

"...When it comes to accountability," he had said, "I think we can set up a board such as there is in prison; a board of independent members, which checks the conditions of the centres and the people detained there every so often."

The media, Dr Borg had said, would be given direct access to such a board.