Some of the changes made to Malta’s laws on the detention of asylum-seekers were still not clear, the UN refugee agency said yesterday.
In its annual mid-year progress report, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) welcomed the changes but identified a number of gaps that it claimed still exist.
Revisions to the Immigration Act and the Refugees Act (Reception Regulations), rolled out in December, prohibit the detention of children except as a measure of last resort. The requirement to detain persons arriving in Malta irregularly was also removed as part of the updates.
While the revised law no longer supports automatic and mandatory detention of asylum-seekers entering Malta in an irregular way, the report questioned whether these complied fully with the key legal principles governing detention.
“UNHCR remains concerned with the interpretation of the legal grounds for detention, lack of clarity on the applicability of ‘alternatives to detention’, and the need to establish safeguards to ensure that detention is always used in proportionality to a legitimate purpose,” it said.
This could potentially lead to situations of “arbitrary and unlawful detention
A policy framework also issued in December outlined the creation of an Initial Reception Centre (IRC) where asylum-seekers would be confined, screened medically, and assessed for release to the community or issuance of a detention order. Two IRCs were created – one for adults and another for families and children – where persons arriving irregularly can be held until medical and identity checks are completed.
The IRC for adults opened its doors in February, holding 15 persons relocated from Italy under the EU relocation scheme. Another group was relocated and held at the IRC in March.
The second IRC welcomed its first residents in May, hosting a Syrian family with two children through the same scheme.
They were detained for medical clearance upon arrival for 70 hours and then released to an open reception centre, the UNHCR said.
This was also lambasted in the report with the agency claiming that “some of the guidelines for immigration authorities contained in the new policy document are not fully in line with well-established international human rights and refugee law standards”.
The agency warned that this could potentially lead to situations of “arbitrary and unlawful detention”.
The agency said that in the coming months it would be closely monitoring the implementation of the new measures by working closely with NGOs and the Home Affairs Ministry.
According to the agency, nearly a quarter of a million people have reached Europe by crossing the Mediterranean this year. In Malta, there has been only one boat arrival this year: a family of five who arrived in May.