The government should publish all pending inquiries after having already released the findings of one last week, human rights lawyer Neil Falzon said yesterday.
He was reacting to the publication of an inquiry into the deaths of two migrants in 2011 and 2012.
The inquiry was tabled in Parliament by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat last Wednesday after a heated debate on former home affairs minister Manuel Mallia.
Dr Falzon’s Aditus Foundation was among eight human rights NGOs that hit out at the present and previous administrations last week for sitting on the “damning” report since December 2012.
Eight NGOs hit out at present and previous administrations
He told Times of Malta yesterday the inquiry had highlighted the dismal state of the island’s detention services at the time of the mysterious deaths of the two migrants, something NGOs had long lamented.
In the report, former Detention Services head Brian Gatt complains that 70 per cent of the personnel stationed at either of the island’s two detention centres were “the worst of the worst”.
These, he says, included “womanisers” and an officer who had been arraigned for firing shots at a yacht and others who exhibited blatant disregard for protocol.
Describing the inquiry as “the most comprehensive national report on the state of detention”, Dr Falzon said he was not shocked by its findings.
Rather, what was more shocking was that successive governments had read the inquiry but allowed it to sit on a shelf for two years, he said.
Dr Falzon reiterated a call he made last week for the government to open a dialogue with NGOs involved in the issue of migration to help improve the situation for all.
He was speaking at the culmination of a march through the bustling streets of Valletta yesterday to mark International Human Rights Day.
Attended by representatives of about 30 civil society NGOs, the walk was also being held to mark the anniversary of Malta’s adaptation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The org-anisations will be presenting members of Parliament with a statement urging them to use their seat in the House to uphold human rights.
They are also urging MPs to establish a national human rights institution to promote the concept throughout Maltese society.