A European Commission report, published in Brussels yesterday, queries the adequacy of detention centres for illegal immigrants and asylum seekers in Malta.
The report, which evaluates the application of the Reception Conditions Directive by EU member states, states that "Malta's adequacy of reception conditions provided to asylum seekers in detention is questionable".
The Commission had similar questions on detention centres in Hungary, Latvia, Greece, Belgium and Italy.
The EU directive lays down that material reception conditions should be sufficient to ensure the subsistence and health of (asylum) applicants. However, the report stops short of specifying Malta's "adequacy" problems.
Overall, the evaluation report gives the thumbs up to the island's transposition of the Reception Conditions Directive which aims to harmonise legislation of member states in this area.
The Commission highlighted certain aspects of the directive where Malta could do better.
These include the need to provide asylum seekers with sufficient information on local organisations providing assistance and to allocate more human and material resources to implement reception conditions.
The report shows that detention centres are used all over Europe although Malta has one of the longest detention periods.
"Detention is foreseen by all member states on numerous grounds. The length of detention varies from seven days in Portugal to 12 months in the case of Malta and Hungary. The UK and Finland have an undefined period of detention."
The Commission said detention should be an exception to the general rule of free movement, which might be used only when "it proves necessary".
It warned that automatic detention without any evaluation of the situation of the person in question is contrary to the directive.
The EU executive also announced its intention to propose amendments to this directive in order to address the issues raised in the evaluation.
According to European Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini, "creating a level playing field in the area of reception conditions is a priority for the Commission."