French newspaper Le Figaro has published a graphic description of conditions in Malta's detention centres for migrants, its publication coinciding with a visit to Malta by EU Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot.
The feature, by Pierre April, starts off with the plight of John Oruru, a 20-year-old Nigerian at Ta Kandja, who throws messages to visitors at the camp.
His message written in bad English reads: "I am surrounded by Somalians, with whom I cannot communicate as I do no speak their language. I try my best to feel at ease, but it is very difficult for me to remain in these conditions. When a son asks his father for bread or fish, the former does not give him a stone or a snake. In the name of the Father, I request to be transferred to another center."
His is not the only petition. A man of Somali origin asks for news of his pregnant wife, locked in a neighbouring cell, who he hasn't seen for three weeks. A female adolescent shows burns on her elbow and knees, which were caused by a fire that had apparently devastated her house in Somalia, and asks for treatment.
One of her ill-fated friends, visibly minor, requests to be closer to her sister, who is detained in another camp in Hal Far.
A young Nigerian girl who carries a sad smile, Abraham Meicy, complains of food which is served in the prison on a regular basis: chicken and chips.
Nevertheless, they all await the same deadline to be able to meet the Commissioner for Refugees at last, in the hope of obtaining the right of asylum on an island of which they knew nothing before they crossed the Mediterranean, Le Figaro says.
After describing how the immigration problem had swelled in a few years and how barracks were converted into detention centres, Le Figaro says that at Ta' Kandja each cell, the equivalent of a dormitory, takes around 50 illegal immigrants. Each of these cells leads onto a little internal courtyard, which is surrounded by high walls, and which is accessible every day between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.
A simple wooden door, under key lock, separates the cells from the common area. Prisoners carry out house work in turns. Once a week, men and women have the opportunity to meet in the courtyard in order to chat for an hour or two.
"Lack of understanding reigns between the prison wardens and their hosts. The former doubt the truth in the accounts given by the latter, who on the other hand do not understand the reason behind their bad luck," the newspaper reports.
It adds that Meicy requested asylum by using a very strange argument - a vague religious conflict between her father and mother, and the lack of an opportunity of a decent future. Her argument, however, may not be convincing enough for the Commissioner for Refugees.
"Very different from the clear and honest stories recounted by Somali victims of the civil war, or of Eritrean immigrants, enrolled by force in the National Army, sometimes for 10 years."
It points out that last year 1,279 of the 2,692 requests for asylum were declined. Only 19 illegal immigrants were granted refugee status under the Geneva Convention. However, 1,387 obtained subsidiary protection, the equivalent of a residence permit, which is usually granted for one year, but which is very often renewed.
Awil Khadar Ali was one of those chosen ones. Arrested on the coast of Malta on 30 May 2008, the Somali who fled the fighting in the capital, Mogadishu, was jailed for eight months at Hal Far.
"After a while in this prison, you become crazy," Awil is reported saying.
Benefiting from temporary protection for the last three weeks, which is valid until 24 February 2010, the young man spends his days in a makeshift camp erected opposite his former prison with, in his pocket, the €130 of aid given to him each month by the Maltese authorities.
"In this isolated plot of land, located on the edge of a container park, the government has erected about forty military tents devoid of light and heating, in which about a dozen people cohabit. At dusk, the cold is intense. In short supply, the toilets and showers are in a hideously dirty state. Last week, Awil's tent was blown away with the storm and the young man had to find refuge in the shelter of a neighbouring tent. On one of the walls in the common-room, old job offers on yellowed paper remain placarded. Tenants of the centre theoretically have the right to work, but due to the crisis, posts are becoming extremely rare.
"I have absolutely no idea what to do," Awil said.
"Exiled from their country, these African refugees finally face a local population that compares them to "pigeons feeding on the seeds" and accuse them of "taking the jobs of the Maltese for half the price," the newspaper says.
"These phenomena of ostracism, according to the authorities, is due to the tiny size of the island, whose density is one of the largest in the world. According to the government, it pointsout, the arrival of a single migrant in Malta is equivalent to that of 1 129 illegal immigrants in Germany and 953 in Italy," it points out.
http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2009/03/13/01003-20090313ARTFIG00012-malte-l-ile-o-echouent-les-clandestins-d-afrique-.php