Almost 80 asylum seekers quarantined at the Safi detention centre are being denied access to visitors, including legal assistance and information on asylum procedures.
Human rights NGOs usually providing such assistance to asylum seekers told The Sunday Times of Malta they are unable to provide help to migrants who arrived last Thursday, even though it is their right.
The army rescued 87 African migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean to Europe on a dinghy last Thursday.
Migrants said around 20 others had died during the attempted crossing, while another died at Mater Dei Hospital.
When they arrived at Haywharf, the migrants waited for three hours before disembarking the boat because of Ebola procedures implemented for the first time.
All migrants were screened before being allowed off the boat and tests carried out on those taken to hospital for medical assistance turned out negative. The rest who were sent to quarantine will have to wait out the three-week incubation period.
The Home Affairs Ministry confirmed the asylum seekers cannot have any visitors for 21 days, including NGOs.
What happens when women and children are on board?
“Discussions are ongoing. When given clearance by health authorities, normal procedures on dissemination of information will follow,” a spokeswoman said.
Human rights NGOs Aditus and Jesuit Refugee Services, as well as the UN Refugee agency, acknowledged that measures to protect public health were a priority. But they said they hoped the asylum seekers were being given the assistance needed.
“This is not only legal assistance, but social and psychological as well. No-one knows whether any of the 20 who perished along the way was a relative of someone in detention now. This would be a trauma needing attention,” Aditus head Neil Falzon said.
Human rights lawyer Katrine Camilleri questioned whether the measures were draconian especially since the risk from people travelling by air could be greater than those travelling by boat.
Assigning the asylum seekers to quarantine at the moment does not pose logistical problems because the rescue was the first in several months and came at a time when the number of migrants in detention had slipped to a low of 29. At one time there were over 2,000.
Malta has been warned to expect an increase in the flow of asylum seekers in the coming months because Italy’s mission to save lives at sea, Mare Nostrum, has ended.
The men who arrived on Thursday said they were originally from Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea and the Ivory Coast, though they had spent months in Libya where there was no Ebola outbreak.
“In this situation the migrants were all men. What happens when women and children are on board? Is everyone going to be held in quarantine together? Are children going to be detained with adults?
“Where is the quarantine section when detention centres are full?” Dr Camilleri asked.
The Malta office of the UN Refugee Agency said that according to international standards, any specific concerns relating to the health of the individuals in question as well as broader public health concerns should be addressed by “appropriate, proportionate and non-discriminatory measures”.
“Carrying out health checks on individual asylum-seekers may be a legitimate basis for a period of quarantine, provided it is justified as a preventive measure... It should be ensured they are nevertheless provided with adequate information and support,” the UNHCR said.