Six NGOs have expressed strong concern over “yet another riot” at a detention centre and reiterated calls for a radical review of Malta’s policy of detaining all irregular migrants upon arrival.

“Throughout the years, we have urged the competent authorities to assess the legal and human impact of maintaining a detention policy that has been repeatedly condemned by the European Court of Human Rights as being in violation of legally protected, fundamental human rights,” the NGOs said.

The organisations are Aditus, Integra, the Jesuits’ Refugee Service, Kopin, the People for Change Foundation and SOS Malta.

Riot police were called in to stop a disturbance at Lyster Barracks detention centre on Tuesday, which started during a visit by four MPs.

Irregular migrants who apply for protection are detained until their asylum claims are determined, which usually takes months. If their claim is still pending after 12 months, they are automatically released.

Rejected asylum seekers and irregular migrants who cannot be deported are detained for up to 18 months before being released.

“The asylum process is usually exhausted after five or six months. Those who have been rejected grow more and more frustrated as they are forced to count the days in detention before being released or deported,” Aditus director, Neil Falzon, explained.

“Very, very few rejected cases are deported within 18 months,” he added.

Migrants deemed to be ‘vulnerable’, such as unaccompanied minors, are exempted from detention, although their release can take weeks or even months if an age determination test is needed.

Seven migrants, including a Nigerian who told the police he was 17 years old, were sentenced to a suspended jail term yesterday for their involvement in Tuesday’s disturbance.

Dr Falzon noted that the teenager was likely to have already undergone the age determination test for detention and deemed to be an adult.

Migrants who claim to be minors upon arrival are held in adult detention centres if the authorities are unsure of their age pending a verification process. The age assessment could have reached an incorrect conclusion, Dr Falzon said, but the fact that the court treated the migrant as a minor did not mean he would now be released from detention.

“Age assessment is strictly for detention purposes,” he said.

While condemning all forms of violent protest, the NGOs called for an independent inquiry to establish the course of events before, during and after the riot due to discrepancies between the government’s statements and eyewitness accounts.

“We see riots almost every year and they invariably involve people who have reached the end of the line: those who have exhausted the asylum process and are facing months locked up without hope,” Dr Falzon said.

Alternattiva Demokratika backed the calls for an inquiry and said it was “appalling” that the Home Affairs Ministry had not engaged with NGOs on migrants’ detention.

The UN refugee office in Malta reiterated its position yesterday that the island’s automatic and mandatory detention policy was in “dire need of reform”.

We see riots almost every year and they invariably involve people who have reached the end of the line

“The negative and, at times, severe physical and psychological consequences of detention are well documented, yet appear to have had limited impact on national policymaking on the detention of asylum-seekers,” UNHCR Malta wrote in a position paper published last September.

UNHCR believes there are social and financial reasons why the practice of detaining asylum-seekers should be reviewed. It encouraged Malta to explore concrete and effective alternatives to detention.

A JRS Malta study in 2009 found that almost 80 per cent of detained migrants and asylum seekers reported deterioration in their psychological well-being while they were locked up.

More than 1,900 individuals passed through detention centres last year and about 500 were still detained at the end of the year, UNHCR figures show.

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