Migrants this morning barricaded the entrance of Hal Far open centre in protest after they were not allowed to install loudspeakers to relay Muslim prayers across the whole camp.

Informed sources said that Muslim migrants were recently allocated a room where they could pray.

The migrants asked to install loudspeakers to relay the call to prayers across the camp, but the request was turned down, on the basis that not all migrants at the open centre are Muslim.

During their protests they used a skip to block the gate and displayed placards reading 'We have the right to pray' and 'We want freedom of religion."

This morning's standoff was resolved peacefully after the intervention of the Alex Tortell, Director of the Migrants' Welfare Agency and Asst Police Commissioner Josie Brincat.

The migrants also called for better conditions and showed journalists around their squalid quarters in a converted hangar. They said the place was dirty and the kitchen was too small to cater for their requirements.

Video, taken this morning, shows a section of the migrants' quarters in a converted hangar.