The EU was to provide €4.8 million for projects related to the issue of illegal immigration, Justice and Home Affairs, Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici announced in Parliament yesterday.

Speaking during the Budget debate , he said these funds were to be given under the EU external borders fund, the refugee fund and the repatriation fund. Malta had already acquired four new patrol boats under the external borders fund.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said that Malta had excellent relations with both Italy and Libya. Malta had always made its presence felt and this was also the reason why less irregular immigrants came to Malta in 2010.

The EASO asylum office was to open shortly in Malta employing 55 people enjoying EU salaries. He said that 1,000 immigrants had left Malta of whom 600 were relocated in the United States and another 100 in Germany.

In the open centres there were 2,224 illegal immigrants and another 1,300 living in other areas. About 50 illegal immigrants were being repatriated every week in certain cases in non-voluntary repatriation.

He said the government had embarked on various integration programmes but this issue was a difficult one because immigrants nearly always opted to be relocated in a bigger country. Malta had convinced Frontex to take over the issue of the repatriation of immigrants without a status. A project tailor made for Malta had been started by Frontex.

Earlier, Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici said that changes in the ministry aimed at having new and updated legal instruments and also a better administration. He mentioned the number of Bills approved by Parliament and also others which were before the House, including the Bill which would introduce the parole system. He mentioned the laws which were protecting minors.

As regards the courts, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said that during the year the number of sentences given by the court increased while the number of pending cases dropped despite an increase in new cases. He gave figures of cases before the courts for the last ten years, showing improvement in the number of cases decided by the Civil and criminal courts which also resulted in a decrease in the backlog of work in spite of an increased number of new cases each year. The number of cases in the Gozo court also decreased. In the superior court the rate of sentencing over the last ten years was at an average of 4,500 cases per year.

The amendments approved by Parliament on the official executive letter helped to reduce the caseload. The official executive letters presented up to last October were 18 per cent higher than those registered last year.

Progress had also been registered in the age analysis of cases. There was also an increase in summative cases presented and decided by the courts. This showed the growing cooperation between the Police and the Judiciary in the criminal court.

He praised the outgoing Chief Justice Dr Vincent Degaetano for introducing an evolution of thought and increased administrative duties for judges whereby these were given responsibility for the administration of their chamber as was practice in other European countries. There was a growing trend to guarantee the judicial independence also in administrative matters. Modernisation projects had been undertaken in the courts. Legal documents for the last two years had been scanned in Gozo. This process was to be introduced in Malta in the near future. Specialisation among judges led to more flexibility and less delays in giving sentences.

Referring to the Police Force, Minister Mifsud Bonnici said the priority was fighting organised crime. During the first ten months of this year the rate of delinquency in Malta dropped by 10 per cent although the rate of delinquency in tourist areas did match the record fall in crime rate seen in 2009 when figures dropped every month. At the same time, there had been a decline in aggravated theft. Compared to five years ago, the crime rate was down 28.8 per cent.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici gave figures for the various sections of the police force, pointing out, among others, that the unit against car theft inspected 4,548 vehicles and 451 engines. The Vice Squad investigated 1,428 cases and arraigned 257 persons in 246 new cases.

The Administrative Law Enforcement Unit (ALE) had 2,547 new cases, apart from those investigated by the Mobile Squad.

There was greater collaboration between police officers in the regions and also in the special sections resulting in more investigations carried out and over 21,000 contraventions issued. The Police also acquired new equipment through EU funds. This included a DNA database costing €1.1 million.

The Police force invested in human resources and there were over 1,900 policemen in the force. Training was given to new recruits and money had been voted for establishing a Police Academy at Ta’ Kandja next year.

On the unionisation of policemen he said that he would not decide on enhancing the police association before being convinced that the decision would be in the policemen’s interest. He was cautious on the matter.

Concluding, Minister Mifsud Bonnici referred to the prisons, saying that the White Paper on the parole system was ready and two boards had been appointed to start implementing the recommendations of the report on the matter.

Medical services were being provided to prisoners by a medical group while investment was made on drug rehabilitation and on fighting drug abuse in at the facility. He said that he would not intervene on a particular case because a magisterial inquiry was still not concluded. The Attorney General would proceed from there.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.