Malta violated a Somali woman’s human rights when she was kept in detention following the determination of her asylum claim three years ago, The European Court of Human Rights ruled.
The Strasbourg-based court further unanimously decided that Farhiyo Mahamed Jama had also suffered a human rights violation because she did not have a remedy under Maltese law to challenge the lawfulness of her detention and have the matter speedily decided by a court.
Ms Jama arrived in Malta in an irregular manner by boat in May 2012 and sought asylum. She was subjected to an age assessment procedure, having claimed to be a minor, which eventually emerged not to be the case. While her applications were being processed, she was detained in Lyster Barracks, Ħal Far, where she complained of degrading detention conditions in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights.
It is time the Maltese State once and for all took the requisite action to ensure detainees enjoy conditions consonant with human dignity
The Strasbourg Court rejected the government’s preliminary plea that the applicant had not exhausted domestic remedies.
The court held, in line with previous case law, that neither a civil action nor a constitutional redress application were adequate remedies with regard to complaints on conditions of detention – and this largely because of the delays involved in such proceedings.
On the merits of the case, it held, by six votes to one, that on examining the conditions of detention both individually and cumulatively and notwithstanding the “disconcerting lack of female [detention] staff in the centre” at the time, it could not be said that the conditions reached the threshold of severity for a violation of the convention. Moreover, the applicant was not a particularly vulnerable person age- or heath-wise.
One judge – Josep Casadeval of Andorra, who presided over the Court in this case – submitted a partly dissenting opinion.
He said that, in his opinion,the conditions of detention amounted to humiliating and degrading treatment.
“In my view, it is time the Maltese State once and for all took the requisite action to ensure that detainees enjoy conditions of detention consonant with human dignity,” Judge Casadeval said.
The Strasbourg court did, however, unanimously find Malta to be in breach in respect of the right to liberty and security, as Ms Jama was kept in detention for five days after the decision was taken by the Refugee Commissioner that she was entitled to subsidiary protection in Malta.
Moreover, she did not have at her disposal under domestic law an effective and speedy remedy by which to challenge the lawfulness of her detention, the court said.
The government was ordered to pay her €4,000 by way of non-pecuniary damage and €1,500 to cover expenses.