Government rejects Amnesty's claims
Amnesty International was not aware of the whole picture of the detention of illegal immigrants in Malta when it wrote the report criticising the way the island is dealing with illegal immigration, the government said yesterday.
The report harshly criticised the way Malta is dealing with illegal immigration alleging that the island is not respecting its international obligations when it detains migrants automatically on arrival.
When contacted, a spokesman for the Justice Ministry said Amnesty was "completely incorrect" in this regard.
"Malta has no international obligations that preclude its current detention policy for illegal immigrants and neither is it party to any international convention that rules out detaining illegal immigrants on arrival," the spokesman said.
The report refers to others compiled by NGO Médecins du Monde last year and by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) published last September. Both reports, as well as the most recent European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) one released in December, criticise the detention policy.
This explains why local NGOs were not surprised about the outcome of the Amnesty report. The head of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Malta, Neil Falzon, said this was "yet another report criticising Malta's detention policy". He reiterated that UNHCR was concerned that there was an automatic detention of all people entering the island irregularly, including asylum seekers.
A spokesman for Integra Foundation, an NGO working to facilitate the integration of minority groups, and Jesuit Refugee Services director Fr Paul Pace also felt that this report said nothing new.
In a statement last night, the government said the search and rescue incidents of and May 21 and 24, 2007, occurred outside the Maltese Search and Rescue Region. In the first case, the boat was neither sinking nor in any imminent danger while in the second, due notice was given to the authorities.
As for detention, it is totally incorrect to state that at the end of last June, there were 3,000 migrants detained. The actual number at the time was 1,300. The figure quoted by Amnesty seems to have been made up of the total number of immigrants held in detention and the 1,800 people accommodated in open centres. Immigrants availing themselves of open centre facilities are free to move out as they please and cannot in any way be considered detainees.
The claims by Medicines du Monde are also false, the government said. It is not true that a pregnant woman gave birth in a detention centre. Moreover, there is no facility for solitary confinement at any of the detention centres. "It is, therefore, hard to understand how Amnesty International could condone and endorse such an unfounded allegation."
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Joseph R Aquilina
May 30th 2008, 16:56
The Malta Government is to be congratulated and internationally commended for its sensitive and balanced handling of a very difficult Immigration problem that seems to be becoming graver and graver with every passing year. The human beings involved in the tragedy cannot but arouse our compassion, while the fact that we are the EU’s southernmost outpost exposes Malta to numbers that the country cannot be expected to handle. The Government’s sober suggestion for EU “burden sharing” has so far sadly gone unheeded. Malta should be grateful to the USA for accepting to host quite a number of genuine refugees that had landed in Malta. It is hoped that the example of the USA will trigger EU countries to rise to their joint and collective responsibilities in this matter.
Jean Pierre Aquilina
May 30th 2008, 09:42
Well done Ministry!
Why does Amnesty Internationl report the bad but not the good? From a humanitarian perspective, we are doing the best we can and we should be commended for our efforts.
Furthermore, even if the incidents cited were true, the prominence given by Amnesty paints the false picture that this is the norm. Amnesty, please be objective when reporting on how Malta deals with illegal immigration. How about sending some officials to help out rather than attempting to tarnish the Maltese reputation as a warm and welcoming race?