Malta yesterday rejected calls by the Council of Europe’s (CoE) Human Rights Commissioner to revise its detention policy and hit back at comments describing the Marsa and Ħal-Far open centres as “substandard”.
Following a two-day visit to Malta last week, the CoE Human Rights Commissioner, Thomas Hemmerberg yesterday said that, in light of the low number of asylum seekers arriving on the island in the last few months, Malta should reconsider its mandatory detention policy as this can “hardly be reconciled with the requirements set by the European Convention of Human Rights.”
According to current rules, all illegal immigrants landing on Malta’s shores are detained up to a maximum of 18 months. If they file an asylum application they are released on receiving a favourable decision, which is usually given within six months, according to the Justice and Home Affairs Ministry.
In fact, the ministry took exception at Mr Hammerberg’s comment, insisting that detention is allowed under both EU and CoE rules.
The minister said Malta was not considering a review of its detention policy. “The policy and the period of detention are not meant to penalise the immigrants, since this is purely a security measure which is also meant to facilitate the repatriation of those immigrants who do not qualify for international protection,” he said.
The ministry noted that, notwithstanding the fact that the maximum duration of detention is 18 months, this is reduced to 12 months in the case of asylum seekers.
“Furthermore, in view of the investments made in the Office of the Refugee Commissioner, Malta’s asylum determination authority, on average asylum cases are determined within six months, which of course means that genuine asylum seekers generally do not spend more than six months in detention,” the ministry stressed.
Malta also rebutted criticism by Mr Hammerberg of the current state of the two open centres in Marsa and Ħal-Far which he called “substandard”.
In Mr Hammamberg’s view, material conditions in these centres, which are currently hosting some 2,300 people, need to be improved urgently. He said the tent village in Ħal-Far in particular offered “clearly inadequate conditions of accommodation for short or long periods of time”.
He said that, while efforts were made to prevent vulnerable groups, such as children, families and pregnant women, from being accommodated in the big, inadequate centres, the placement of such migrants in adequate accommodation centres was not always guaranteed.
Although recognising the need for improvements, the ministry said the open centres were never intended to provide long-term accommodation but rather offer shelter only until such time as the migrants in question could find suitable independent accommodation.
“Moreover, significant numbers of immigrants have been allowed to remain at the centres for prolonged periods, as they could not find independent accommodation. This has resulted in crowding, yet the alternative would have been to send immigrants out to live in the streets! This was not, and is still not considered, a suitable alternative,” the ministry said.