Detention facilities and the treatment of migrants have undergone drastic improvement but concerns over access to legal aid remain, according to a UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
UN delegates were in Malta over the last two days to assess progress since their initial visit in 2009, when a series of 13 recommendations were made to the government over criminal justice, juvenile justice and detention of migrants.
Vice-chair Setondji Roland Adjovi said the majority of the issues raised during the initial visit had been successfully followed up by the government.
The 2009 visit had flagged serious shortcomings, particularly in the detention system and the right of accused to access legal aid before police interrogation.
But Mr Adjovi yesterday noted with satisfaction reforms to the “quasi-automatic nature of detention”, as well as proposed amendments that will establish a maximum detention period of 18 months for irregular migrants and nine months for asylum seekers.
“We consider this limitation reasonable as long as the detention can be challenged both on its substance and on the parameters of each individual case,” Mr Adjovi said.
He added, however, that migrants in detention were still not clearly aware of their status, while access to legal aid was very limited. In addition, effective and expedient remedies were lacking when migrants appealed against their status.
While the working group was satisfied that there had been considerable improvement in the physical conditions of the closed detention centres, Mr Adjovi said that conditions at the open centres were still well below international standards.
“Given the limited resources and job opportunities in Malta, many migrants are experiencing difficulties in integrating in Maltese society. Effective liberty and humane conditions for these open centres are critical in any assessment of whether they are not indeed a new form of deprivation of liberty.”
Closed centres are currently almost empty since migrant arrivals dropped drastically over the past year-and-a-half, but open centres remain an important stepping stone for migrants as they try to integrate into society.
Many migrants have moved into the community by renting out apartments in different localities but difficulty to find adequate and sustained jobs has often pushed them back to open centres.
Working group chairman Mads Andenas said that on criminal justice, the access to effective legal aid needed to be improved, particularly for foreigners, for whom communication problems often existed.
Since the 2009 visit, the law was changed to give suspects the right to consult a lawyer of their choice before being interrogated by the police. However, it is still not possible for a lawyer to be present during interrogation.
Moreover, Mr Andenas said, it was essential that the amount of time spent in detention before trial was shortened.
He welcomed the raising of the age of criminal responsibility from nine to 14, but criticised the fact that minors between 16 and 18 were still being tried as adults and subject to criminal law.
“Malta should consider extending the scope of its juvenile legislation to include all children under the age of 18 to bring it fully in line with international standards,” he said.