Alternattiva Demokratika called for a review of the length and conditions for detention and for increased efforts towards responsibility-sharing in the EU.
Following a visit to the Safi Detention Centre today, AD chairman Michael Briguglio said:
"Malta should give due importance to the humanitarian realities of immigrants, whilst also having a clear integration policy that matches immigrants' rights with responsibilities, and that grants the right of asylum to those who genuinely need it."
He said that a sustainable integration policy needed to be developed in a way which was sensitive to the individual and particular realities of immigrants
"The anti-immigration populists, characterised by egoistic nationalism, oppose the very concept of responsibility sharing.
"Experts and the media should have full access to detention centres. Length and conditions of detention, which are currently too long, inhumane and unsustainable should be reviewed."
Lterms of detention tended to be counterproductive and were useless as they fostered bitterness among immigrants and soldiers.
Home Affairs spokesman Carmel Cacopardo said:
"It is in everybody's interest that during the period of their stay in Malta migrants are given assistance to develop their skills so that that when they return to their homeland or when they resettle elsewhere they will be better equipped to face the difficulties which were the cause of their ordeal.
"Training offered to migrants, especially to their children, will contribute to their better integration when resettlement can take place," he said.
Migration spokesman Robert Callus said:
"Long term detention is both inhumane and financially unfeasible. Some immigrants do not qualify for protection, yet cannot be deported in a short period of time due to problems in negotiating with their home countries. In the meantime these are being detained for up to 18 months.
"A six month maximum is enough for monitoring since cheaper and more humane alternatives exist. These include obligatory signing at police stations and mandatory health checks.
"Failure to oblige by these conditions would mean the immigrant would be detained once again, thus he is given responsibility over his own freedom."
Mr Callus said immigrants out of detention centres should be granted work permits so that they would be able work legally.
"This is a win-win situation for these immigrants and the Maltese taxpayer as well as a blow to the black economy."