No immigrant is released from the detention centres before recovering from any medical condition which could be of danger to the population, Lt Col Brian Gatt, head of detention services said this morning.
Speaking on Għandi xi Ngħid on Radio Malta, Lt Col Gatt said all migrants are checked for infective diseases and given any medical treatment they require.
During the programme, an appeal was made for donations of warm clothing and baby clothes to the detention and open centres. (contact 99015549).
A long-serving volunteer who helps out at immigration centres spoke of her heartache at continuing to see people kept in cages as if they were circus animals.
"I feel so helpless, they spend days on end doing nothing and only hoping for the future," the volunteer identified as Antoinette said.
Katerin Camilleri, director of the Jesuit Refugee Centre, said other countries had alternatives to detention, which, however still involved a restriction of freedoms, such as tagging, or a system where the migrants were made to sign in every evening. Detention for a long time, she warned, brought about stress and a negative impact on the psychological make-up of those involved.
Alex Tortell from the AWAS social agency, said that while that could be true, psychological problems could also crop up in open centres as many migrants found it difficult to find jobs and so their aspirations vanished.
He said that after providing protection, the best that Malta could offer, according to its capabilities, was training in the English language and job training.
Lt Col Gatt said everything was done in consideration of local security issues and the fact that Malta was already a densely populated country. Malta gave protection to all those who deserved it. Migrants were released from detention as soon as they were deemed to be deserving of protection and asylum.
However 700 migrants remained in detention and some 75% of them were expected to have their request for protection refused, as these were economic migrants. Repatriation procedures could not be taken in hand until all protection avenues were exhausted and then the migrants had the necessary documents for repatriation.
Dr Camilleri noted that detention for up to EU months could be a breach of human rights, according to European Court caselaw. When a migrant's application for protection was refused, repatriation had to be efficient so that the migrant was not kept in detention for an excessive time.
Col Gatt said the applications process was a long one and no repatriation process could start before the final appeal was decided. Repatriation, too was complex as the home nations of the migrants had to cooperate in order for repatriation to take place.
Dr Camilleri also noted that according to the European Court, the remedies available in Malta were not sufficient or efficient enough for the migrants to challenge refusal of asylum status.
Malcolm Seychell spoke on the problems which migration causes the country, including migrants taking the jobs of the Malta, costs, and problems caused by riots. He said integration was not working but some people wanted migrants here in order to exploit them for cheap labour, and some NGOs would not be eligible for EU funds without the presence of the migrants.
Interviewer Andrew Azzopardi referred to the case of a migrant having died after having escaped from a detention centre and been recaptured. He asked what had happened.
Lt Col Gatt said procedures were always under constant review. In this case, a magisterial inquiry was still under way and therefore he could not comment further.
On integration, Mr Tortell said AWAS was working to help migrants interested in staying in Malta, to integrate better in society. Some were helped to find a job once they were granted protection status. Once the pressure of numbers decreased, Malta needed to better discuss integration policy, he said. One needed to remove discrimination and ensure that the migrants had access to all facilities.