Former home affairs minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici had ordered the detention services head not to sack officers involved in the 2011 death of a migrant, despite their refusal to cooperate, a long-awaited inquiry has found.

Testimony from the report, tabled in Parliament yesterday, claims Dr Mifsud Bonnici had wanted “everything to remain the same” until police investigations were concluded before any action was taken by the Armed Forces of Malta.

Former detention head Brian Gatt had tried to remove the officers from active duty when they refused to be debriefed about their involvement in the suspicious death of 29-year-old Nigerian migrant Ifeanye Nwokoye.

The report, which also delved into the death of Malian migrant Mamadou Kamara the following year, was never published despite being drafted by Judge Jeffrey Valenzia back in 2012.

It was tabled by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat yesterday evening just 24 hours after he sacked Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia.

The bar of accountability had been raised for everyone

Throwing the ball in the Opposition’s court, Dr Muscat asked PN leader Simon Busuttil what he would do, especially after he himself had promptly published an inquiry into the shooting incident involving Dr Mallia’s driver.

This, he said, was only Dr Busuttil’s first test and he would be giving him one every month because “the bar of accountability” had been raised for everyone.

Reacting, Dr Mifsud Bonnici denied accusations of a cover-up and insisted he had never instructed anybody not to carry out their duties.

He said that seven months after the Nigerian’s death he had released the recommendations of Martin Scicluna’s independent report while the Attorney General had reprimanded Magistrate Tonio Micallef Trigona for delaying the magisterial inquiry.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said in Parliament he had never held up the report and, to date, Dr Muscat too had failed to publish the findings.

The Valenzia report claims that both former police commissioner John Rizzo and former AFM commander Martin Xuereb had not been informed of the magisterial inquiry’s conclusions into Mr Nwokoye’s death.

Mr Nwokoye had died in hospital following a botched escape attempt from the Safi detention centre.

Although a separate inquiry called for disciplinary measures to be taken against a number of AFM officers, the cause of his death remains a mystery.

Two soldiers and a detention service officer have since been charged in court with his involuntary homicide. The case is ongoing.

The Valenzia inquiry called for more detailed procedures on the use of security doors at all centres as well as for officials to receive regular first aid training.

CCTV cameras should also be installed in all centres and hand-held video cameras used to document similar incidents, it concluded.

Inquiry findings

The Valenzia inquiry also delves into the death of Malian Mamadou Kamara who was allegedly beaten to death by detention officers a little over a year after the mysterious passing of Mr Nwokoye.

The report found that officers had resorted to excessive force.

Mr Kamara died of a heart attack after suffering a blunt force trauma to the groin.

He is believed to have died while officers were taking him to receive medical care at the Paola health centre.

According to the report, detention officers had tried to send Mr Kamara to Mount Carmel Hospital to “get rid of him” because he was causing a stir in the Safi centre.

When the request was turned down, he was taken back to the detention centre only to assault an officer and flee. When apprehended, he bit another officer in the arm, the report says.

It was after this incident, that Mr Kamara was put in a steel cage at the back of a detention centre van and fatally beaten.

According to two separate post mortem examinations he suffered a haemorrhage around the left testicle after being forcefully kneed in the groin. The trauma was so severe it caused a fatal heart attack. Clouding around the eyes, one post mortem report adds, was proof that Mr Kamara died in severe pain.

The report concludes that the two officers who were in the cage with the then handcuffed Mr Kamara had broken transport protocol as they should have been sitting on the front seats.

The detention system created an environment of animosity where both the soldiers and the migrants felt they were the victims. Photo: Darrin Zammit LupiThe detention system created an environment of animosity where both the soldiers and the migrants felt they were the victims. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi

The inquiry delved into great detail to understand the situation at the detention centre at the time when Malian Mamadou Kamara died in the army’s custody in June 2012. Ariadne Massa highlights the points raised by Col Brian Gatt, who headed the detention services, witnesses and NGOs.

• Some 70 per cent of the soldiers assigned to man the detention services were the army’s rejects; the “worst people in the army” who nobody wanted. Being deployed to the detention services was considered a punishment.

• The detention structures created were weak and not designed to handle so many migrants.

• The environment was described as “horrendous” with extreme heat, dirt and no privacy for 200 to 300 detained men living in the dormitory-style halls.

• When Col Gatt complained he had no officer, he was assigned a person who had been arraigned for shooting at a yacht. His reaction to his superiors was: “Are you guys in your right senses? We’ve just had this migrant’s incident and you’re sending me somebody who’s tainted with another crime?”

• One time, a womanising sergeant at the Ħal Far detention centre was caught lurking in the women’s quarters at night while on watch. He even took a woman migrant into his office and condoms were found in the room.

• Another time a soldier with a usury habit was deployed to these same quarters. One time, he set out at night with an unsuspecting driver who returned terrified and told Col Gatt they had been stopped by armed men in a BMW.

• If anything was to be successfully achieved, Col Gatt believed the structures and the people had to change.

• On one occasion, nine immigrants escaped and when Col Gatt confronted the bombardier in charge and asked if he knew the procedure in place, the officer simply picked up the rule book and said: “Here are the regulations but I don’t follow them”. This negligent bombardier had failed to lock three of four doors.

• It was pointed out that the system put the onus of caring for migrants on the soldier. A soldier who is trained to fight and defend has to work as a social worker.

• The bigger problem was at the institutional level and NGOs had long been warning political parties that “one day someone will be killed because the way the system worked dehumanised migrants”. They were treated as “illegal objects” with no rights or access to procedures. The system created an environment of animosity where both the guards and the migrants felt they were the victims.

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