A report criticising several aspects of Malta’s asylum system has been dismissed as “warped and unrealistic” by the Home Affairs Ministry.
The International Commission of Jurists report charged that Malta’s mandatory detention policy ran counter to international human rights obligations, that detention conditions were poor enough to constitute degrading treatment and that last year’s Safi riots merited an inquiry.
Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici first reacted to the report on Monday, saying that ending detention was not realistic.
The official reaction yesterday went one step further, saying detention was “wholly justified”, in line with Malta’s international obligations and permitted by the European Convention on Human Rights.
While it appreciated the ICJ’s recognition, “although very, very late in the day”, that Malta was exposed to disproportionate migratory influxes and required assistance, its report was not accurate.
The ministry pointed out that the asylum determination process had been sped up considerably, with most applications processed quickly enough to mean most asylum seekers only spent a few weeks in detention.
Only those whose asylum claim was rejected were detained for longer periods, the ministry said. The government strove to repatriate these, with 143 migrants sent back to their home countries – Nigeria, Ghana and Egypt – this year.
In the absence of detention, asylum seekers whose claims were rejected would abscond or go underground, the ministry warned. Detention was a “fair and just” system.
The ministry said that only one migrant had suffered minor injuries as a result of last August’s riots at Safi detention centre, evidence that the authorities did not use excessive force and that ICJ demands for an inquiry were “uncalled for”.
The ministry listed a number of initiatives the government had undertaken with regard to asylum seekers, from the refurbishment of open and closed centres, to voluntary return opportunities and an asylum recognition rate consistently exceeding 50 per cent.
It also provided integration-oriented courses, through the Agency for the Welfare of Asylum Seekers, to address employability and other issues of concern. And it ensured accessibility to an efficient asylum system that was concluding most first instance cases within six months.
These efforts, the ministry noted, should have been given more weight by the ICJ in its assessment of the migration and asylum situation in Malta.
“While the ministry recognises that more remains to be done, it certainly cannot be argued that Malta is not doing enough or that it is in any way ignoring the rights of irregular migrants or asylum seekers.”