People to be arraigned as a result of prison inquiry

A number of people are to be arraigned over several crimes as a result of the inquiry probing the situation inside the prisons, Justice and Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici said this morning.

Addressing a news conference on his ministry’s work in the past year, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said the inquiry report made administrative recommendations and proposed that certain people should be arraigned.

When asked, the minister preferred not to say whether the people to be arraigned are inmates or officials.

The minister was also asked why the government did not publish the whole inquiry report. He said this was because he preferred to let justice take its course and take concrete decisions before making such a report public.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said that the reform of the prisons was on the government’s agenda and a unit had been set up within his ministry to ensure that recommendations were followed.

The minister also spoke on the problem of illegal migration and said that he was receiving mixed messages from the international humanitarian assistance agency Medicins Sans Frontieres.

This organisation, which had pulled out of Malta’s detention centres, was saying it was interested in increasing its services in Malta yet it had criticised the country for the situation in detention centres.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said he expected an international organisation to help Malta overcome this challenge for it was easy to criticise a small country where problems were more visible. The government was working to improve the situation but one had to keep in mind that numbers kept increasing and the detention policy was important to protect the Maltese people.

On Frontex, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said that France, Germany and Luxembourg had indicated their interest to take part in this year’s operation if it took place. Plans, he said, were still on track.

The minister also announced that the government hoped to introduce electronic tagging and the register for serious crimes by the end of this year.