A report by Amnesty International was "riddled with inaccuracies, misinformation and omissions with regard to Malta", the Justice and Home Affairs Ministry said.

The report criticised incidents where, it said, Malta left immigrants stranded at sea. It also referred to mandatory detention and the conditions in closed centres.

Amnesty said its annual report listed abuses in 159 countries and showed how powerful governments were blocking advances in international justice by standing above the law on human rights, shielding allies from criticism and acting only when politically convenient.

Malta is mentioned in the section dealing with Italy. The report refers to the Pinar incident, when a Turkish cargo ship had rescued over 140 migrants at sea but remained stranded off Lampedusa for over four days as the Maltese and Italian governments wrangled over which country was responsible for taking the migrants in.

The other instance mentioned is April 30, 2009, when the Italian government did not allow a Maltese vessel with 66 migrants aboard to disembark at Lampedusa, even though they were four times closer to the Italian island than to Malta. The Maltese government eventually accepted them, citing "strictly humanitarian reasons".

The ministry said the report was misleading, insisting that the Armed Forces of Malta had "properly addressed all reported search and rescue cases in line with Malta's international obligations".

It also defended the army's policy of ensuring "persons rescued are taken to the nearest safe port, be this in Malta or elsewhere in line with applicable international law".

The ministry noted that notwithstanding differences on legal interpretation of the laws of the seas, the Italian and Maltese authorities had, in close cooperation, effectively ensured the safety of thousands of lives in the central Mediterranean.

Amnesty condemned the practice of compulsory detention for all irregular migrants. It said that the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention had, in January, "expressed concerns about the legal basis for detention of migrants and asylum seekers".

The working group had noted that detention was automatic and mandatory for all, including those seeking asylum, and that the maximum period of detention was not defined in law and its duration was "often not related to individual case assessments".

Amnesty also reported that "conditions in detention remained poor".

The ministry explained that its detention policy was geared to "safeguard the country's security, particularly in view of the fact that practically all illegal migrants enter the country undocumented".

Amnesty said decisions regarding asylum applications and detention could only be challenged before the Immigration Appeals Board, which was not part of the judiciary. This, it added, contravened article 5(4) of the European Convention on Human Rights, which provided for automatic judicial review of detention.

The ministry shot down these claims categorically and said the Immigration Appeals Board was an independent judicial body and the claim that it was responsible for determining asylum applications was likewise factually incorrect.

Malta had a fully fledged asylum determination authority, namely the Office of the Refugee Commissioner, and an independent judicial board to determine asylum-related appeals, that is, the Refugee Appeals Board, the ministry said.

Amnesty said it was worried that the Immigration Appeals Board could only review the duration of the detention but not its legality, which contravened the European Convention on Human Rights.

The ministry said that, according to a report by UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Malta had the highest number of asylum applications per capita in the EU and the second highest among industrialised countries worldwide.

When questioned, Amnesty confirmed it did not have a presence in Malta since 2009. It said all research on Malta had always been carried out from its international secretariat in London, with information based on reports and contacts from local NGOS, intergovernmental organisations and the media.

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