Home Affairs Ministry hits out at Amnesty migration report

A report slamming Malta for its handling of migration from Africa “is peppered with inaccuracies and inconsistencies,” the Home Affairs Ministry said yesterday.

The ministry said the report betrayed the organisation’s “selective, subjective and war-ped evaluation of the challenges that Malta faces with illegal immigration”..

It dismissed a claim in the Amnesty report, which said on Tuesday Malta’s mandatory detention regime for illegal immigrants went against the European Convention on Human Rights.

“It must be noted that the ECHR does not condemn mandatory detention upon arrival... It provides for the lawful arrest or detention of a person to prevent his effecting an unauthorised entry into the country or of a person against whom action is being taken with a view to deportation or extradition.

“In fact, the ECHR has always concluded that states have the right to limit the movement of those who enter their territory and this limitation does not in any manner imply any violation of fundamental human rights.”

The ministry pointed out that detention did not follow from an application for asylum but from irregular entry.

In terms of the Immigration Act, people who enter Malta without authorisation are served with a removal order and are detained.

Detained persons were provided with information on their rights, including the right to challenge their detention and the right to apply for asylum, the ministry said.

Amnesty International’s report also criticised EU member states for turning a blind eye to Libya’s treatment of migrants, after accusing the North African state of systematic torture and ill treatment.

On this score, the ministry said it promoted cooperation in the region and especially between the EU and Libya to improve the management of the immigration problem.

“In this regard, Malta assigns particular importance to the strengthening of relations between the EU and Libya in view of the latter’s role in the migration sector, particularly in view of its geographical position and the fact that Libya is also facing considerable challenges due to the large number of immigrants that it hosts.”

The ministry noted that although it provided Amnesty’s representatives with full access to Malta’s asylum system during their visit, the organisation failed to report on all the efforts undertaken to provide a sustainable future for migrants and instead resorted to the usual rhetoric to shed bad light on Malta’s single handed efforts to deal with the phenomenon.

“It should also be underlined for the record that, in spite of the ministry’s repeated calls on AIto actively support Malta in its bid to resettle beneficiaries of international protection to other EU member states and lobby other countries to come to these unfortunate people’s aid, AI has conveniently refrained from doing so,” the ministry said.