While Sudanese immigrant Suleiman Ismail Abubaker lay in a coma, alone in a hospital bed for 11 days, his friends scoured the island in search of him, only to find he was dead through newspaper reports.

"His phone was off and we managed to establish he had not left the island, but we had no idea where he was. If only we had known he was in hospital," his friend, who did not wish to be named, told The Sunday Times.

The Sudanese community from the Marsa Open Centre had no idea their 28-year-old friend was fighting for his life after a brawl in Paceville on May 29. Initially assuming he was staying with friends in Buġibba or Gozo, they only raised the alarm two days after he went missing.

Concern mounted when he failed to turn up for his third and final interview with the International Organisation for Migration, as part of his application to resettle in the US.

"Suleiman was very happy he had come so close to going to the US. He finally saw a glimmer of hope in his life," his friend said.

But Mr Abubaker's journey to a new life was cut short by his fateful decision to go to Paceville, where he was seriously injured after being refused entry to a nightclub.

Mr Abubaker, who had a legal right to be on the island, succumbed to his injuries and died last Tuesday after suffering a fractured skull and lung contusion. Nightclub bouncer Duncan Deguara, 29, has since been charged with causing him serious injury, followed by death.

A French student who was with the Sudanese immigrant at the time told the court his friend had been punched as he tried to enter the club drunk and later kicked by an unidentified person.

However, Mr Deguara said Mr Abubaker had tried to get into the club three times, so when he saw him having a drink at the bar he escorted him to the door and that is when the victim hit him with a bottle.

Stills produced from CCTV cameras that captured the commotion were not clear enough for investigators to establish precisely what happened.

Mr Abubaker was involved in another incident in Paceville last June, when he and another immigrant claimed they were beaten by police officers in separate incidents. Four officers were suspended, and one arraigned, but the case fell through because of lack of evidence.

Mr Abubaker's death sparked a furious online debate. Some argued it was racially motivated, and the result of a charged anti-immigrant sentiment; while others pointed out it was not the first time that Maltese were kept out of clubs, for example for wearing jeans.

However, reports that blacks or dark-skinned people were prohibited from entering Paceville's clubs have become more frequent, and bouncers have earned a bad reputation - in 18 months there were six reports of bouncer beatings that were serious enough to make the headlines.

Immigrants who spoke to The Sunday Times said they were scared to go to Paceville because 90 per cent of the time they were not let into clubs and picked on because of their skin colour.

One Sudanese, who preferred to go by his first name, Mohammed, said: "When I went to Paceville I was not let in. There are a lot of racists there so I prefer to go to a small bar in a different locality. Why go to Paceville to be turned back? Most times I stay in my room, listening to music or reading."

Bouncers need a police licence to operate. However, sources said that individuals like police officers were working as bouncers without a licence because their full-time job prevented them performing such duties. Questions sent to police to establish how many licences were issued remained unanswered by the time of going to print.

When contacted, a spokesman for the Home Affairs Ministry said: "The minister (Carm Mifsud Bonnici) has requested a meeting with the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprise - GRTU, to discuss this matter with a view to introduce better legislation for this area."

Asked if bouncers had a licence to act tough, the spokesman said: "As with all citizens, bouncers are not allowed to manhandle, beat or commit any other criminal offence at the expense of another person."

When asked what the government was doing to tackle these concerns over repeat incidents, the spokesman pointed out that the number of crimes reported in Paceville in 2008 (2,101) decreased by 17 per cent, 445 less than the previous year.

"This goes to show increased police presence in Paceville, and installing CCTV cameras in hot spots, is having a positive effect," he said.

While the racism debate rages on, Mr Abubaker's friend refused to blame the Maltese: "I cannot reason that it was discrimination; the fault may be coming from both sides.

"If a person is drunk he doesn't know what he's doing and if he thought he was not being allowed inside the club because he was black he may have been upset. The bouncer has instructions from his boss to keep drunk people out. But what I'm asking is, does the bouncer have the authority to punch a person?" he asked.

Sitting back, he stopped to reflect on his friend's traits, describing Mr Abubaker as calm, intelligent, multilingual, very sociable and open-minded.

Mr Abubaker arrived in Malta in 2005, after fleeing Darfur in 1996. His father and two sisters (his mother died giving birth to a third child) remained in Chad but he moved on in search of a better life. He arrived in Libya in 2002, but felt life there was unbearable.

Once he arrived in Malta and left the detention centre, he stayed at the Marsa Open Centre, but eventually moved to Gozo where he had a job. For a time, he lived in Buġibba, but when the money dried up and he could not afford the rent, he returned to Marsa at the beginning of the year.

His friend said Mr Abubaker had stopped going to Paceville so often after last year's beating, preferring to spend more time at the centre.

He asked why the hospital did not make a greater attempt to track down Mr Abubaker's next of kin or friends.

"Is there no system in place or is it because he's an immigrant not much effort was made?" he said.

"The Sudanese community is angered by the tragic loss, but there are those who are trying to calm things down to stop things from escalating," he said, adding that a peaceful demonstration was being planned to ensure Mr Abubaker did not die in vain.

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