Abditafah Mohamed, the 17-year-old Somali who was beaten last week in Birżebbuġa, will be transferred to another open centre away from the Ħal Far area, the government agency responsible for asylum seekers confirmed.
Mr Mohamed was beaten by three men while cycling with a friend along Ħal Far's main road during the night. By his account, the attackers knocked him down, beat him and left him in the middle of the road. His friend had managed to get away and went to call for help.
Interviewed by The Sunday Times Mr Mohamed said he feared for his life and was scared to return to Ħal Far since the area was dangerous.
The director of the Organisation for the Integration and Welfare of Asylum Seekers (Oiwas), Alex Tortell, was less concerned about the safety or lack of it in Ħal Far. He told The Times that he was satisfied with the level of security in the area. Mr Tortell added that a decision had been taken to transfer Mr Mohamed to another open centre.
The beating may have the undertones of a racially motivated attack but Mr Tortell would not say whether Oiwas considered it so, insisting that the incident was subject to a police investigation.
Ghanaian-Maltese Ahmed Bugri, a pastor and coordinator of the Marsa Open Centre, does not believe the attack was racially motivated. He said that in most cases he had come across there has always been an underlying dispute.
"While I cannot exclude that this was an attack directed against the person because he was a migrant, I would find it very hard to say it was racially motivated, simply because he was black," Mr Bugri said.
He acknowledged that it was becoming more common for migrants to be harassed because people were becoming more impatient with them.
"While in no way can I condone the attack, it is very rare for a Maltese person or persons to simply go to Ħal Far and decide to beat up any migrant that came along. There is almost always an underlying reason when migrants are beaten. They could have either clashed with their attackers because of failure to pay rent, or because they were not paid for a job, or they were taunted and they answered back," Mr Bugri said.
Questions sent to the police about the incident remained unanswered by the time of writing.
One particular issue that needs clarification is the original police statement issued a day after the attack, which had claimed that, while the police were assisting Mr Mohamed, a motorcyclist mistook the whole affair for a roadblock and drove on the side of the road trampling over the Somali's legs.
In his interview Mr Mohamed said it was a man on a motorcycle who had found him in the middle of the road and assisted him. Indeed, his legs had no visible injuries.
Mr Mohamed arrived in Malta in July 2008. He was granted freedom from detention last January and was subsequently transferred to the Ħal Far open centre.