Two months after Malta lost an appeal from European Court of Human Rights judgments demanding shorter detention periods, the government is still weighing its options. A spokesman said the government was in the process of examining the relevant legislation to determine whether legislative intervention was called for and if so to what extent.

The spokesman pointed out that the matter did not even go before the ECHR’s Grand Chamber and both cases were decided at a first instance without having even gone through the Maltese courts.

“It is felt that this is an anomalous situation, particularly given the principle of subsidiarity and the fact that very few legal systems would allow a human rights case not to be subject to scrutiny on appeal.”

Originally handed down in July, the two judgments involved Ibrahim Suso Musa and Aslya Aden Ahmed, who claimed to be from Sierra Leone and Somalia.

The court found that Ms Aden Ahmed was subjected to degrading treatment and even miscarried while serving a prison term.

In a separate case, it ruled the Maltese authorities had taken too long to determine whether Mr Suso Musa was eligible for protection.

Malta was also fined a total of €60,000. The government challenged the ECHR’s decisions in October and asked for the cases to be referred to the Grand Chamber, but the request was rejected in December.

Besides recommending a shorter stay for detained migrants and an improvement in conditions, the European Court urged the government to ensure a speedier decision-making process when asylum seekers challenged the duration of their detention.

Following the rejection of the appeal, the matter was passed on to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe that will be monitoring the situation to ensure no other violations take place in similar cases.