Recent reports have drawn attention again to the plight of Malta's illegal immigrants. In one case a medical officer, giving evidence in a constitutional case filed by an Eritrean immigrant, recounted how she had seen an officer beat a handcuffed immigrant and how a group of immigrants diagnosed with chicken pox were quarantined for days in a windowless room used to isolate trouble-makers in one of the detention centres.

The newly established detention centres board is investigating these allegations. There can be no argument that these are a matter of public concern and that, in a free and open society, their findings should subsequently be made public.

An earlier report described the pitiful state of affairs at the Hal Far open accommodation centre, known as Tent City, which houses some 800 immigrants. The conditions were described by one inmate as not being fit for human beings, adding pathetically "I know we're not welcome here, but in the meantime we're not asking for much". The Ministry for the Family and Social Solidarity confirmed that there were no plans to house these immigrants in proper buildings.

These two cases, describing respectively the detention centres and the open accommodation centres, are probably not untypical of the conditions under which illegal immigrants to this country live. While the government stresses that detention should provide clean, basic shelter, space for recreation as well as clean and hygienic showers and toilets, the reality is that the facilities are inadequate to cope with the numbers housed at Lyster, Safi and Ta' Kandja barracks. With almost 2,000 illegal immigrants arriving in each of the last two years, housed in accommodation which can only take about 1,600, is it any wonder that conditions deteriorate on the ground?

There is a knock-on effect on the open accommodation centres as illegal immigrants leave the detention centres on being granted asylum or protected humanitarian status. Again, the over-crowding at Marsa - where there are about 1,000 - and at Hal Far open accommodation centres is unacceptable, potentially unhealthy and portrays a wretched image of Malta's attitude to people far worse off than ourselves who have already endured privation and the most hazardous journeys to reach our shores - albeit inadvertently.

We have both international and moral responsibilities towards illegal immigrants. We have signed up to a number of international agreements which we are bound to honour. It is clear that our accommodation and logistic support facilities are inadequate. They do not always meet the basic standards laid down by the EU and there is an undoubted case for at least one more detention centre and one more open accommodation centre to be built to relieve the pressure on over-crowding.

But there is also a moral dimension to illegal immigration which we can no longer shirk. We must show as a nation that we are ready to shoulder our fair share of responsibility for those worse off than ourselves. Illegal immigration is not a problem which will go away. We will have to accept that we are in it for the long haul. We should aim to get credit by doing things properly, rather than trying to get away with the minimum. Meeting the humanitarian challenges posed by illegal immigration positively will also lead to the onerous social and economic impacts of this phenomenon being better addressed in the longer term to our own benefit as a society.