Jail for bid to escape from island

A court yesterday jailed an Ivorian man for nine months for trying to leave the island illegally after the prosecution referred to a judgment by the Chief Justice warning that such cases should be treated seriously.

Issouf Yigo, 22, pleaded guilty to trying to leave the island on Monday using an Italian residence permit and identity card that were not his.

Principal Immigration Officer Mario Haber asked Magistrate Giovanni Grixti for a punishment severe enough to act as a deterrent, citing a recent ruling by Chief Justice Vincent De Gaetano.

Border security was a very serious matter and should be dealt with through effective jail terms, the Chief Justice had said. That judgment was handed down last month after two illegal immigrants appealed their one-year jail term for trying to leave illegally.

Their lawyer, Giannella Caruana Curran, had argued that previous magistrates had all handed down suspended jail terms. But the appeals court confirmed the sentence, saying it was of the view that "(suspended) sentences cannot possibly serve as an effective deterrent against attempts to gain access to Malta and or to the European Union illegally".

He added that "as a general rule, such cases should be met with a prison sentence with immediate effect and that, always as a general rule, anything short of an immediate prison sentence amounts to taking a very myopic view of the whole issue of border security".

Legal aid lawyer Renzo Porsella Flores, appearing for Mr Yigo, said his client's father had passed away and his mother and sister were in the Ivory Coast while his brother was living in Sicily.

He justified Mr Yigo's actions: "It was an overwhelming feeling for him to want to see his brother and, after all, it is a basic human right to want to be reunited with one's family".

After taking into consideration both arguments, Magistrate Giovanni Grixti jailed the man for nine months.