An Ethiopian woman who wants to seek asylum in Malta was this morning given a one-year jail term suspended for two years after she pleaded guilty to disobeying police orders.

Ebis Getu arrived in Malta on July 28 and went to the police on July 29 claiming to have arrived five days earlier with a family from Kuwait who treated her badly and kept her locked up.

She claimed to have escaped because she feared for her life. But later, she admitted this was not true and said she had made up the story because a Somali told her it would get her asylum.

Ms Getu told the police that she had really lived with a Kuwaiti family who maltreated her in Kuwait but the family never came to Malta.

She admitted to travelling with a false passport which was now with the Somali, whom she did not know but who travelled with her on the same flight and to whom she had given a gold chain. Her real passport, she said, was with the Kuwaiti family.

Ms Getu she was married to Wakoo Mayou Kabelu who she met following her arrival in Malta after arrangements were made by the Somali.

In handing down judgement, Magistrate Joe Mifsud noted that Ms Getu did what she did because she wanted to join her husband. He referred to a speech by Pope Francis in June when he appealed for compassion with people who were suffering.

Magistrate Mifsud noted that Ms Getu should have applied for asylum on arrival and that in spite of the help she was offered by the police she insisted on her story for a long time.

In spite of the sentence, Magistrate Mifsud said, Ms Geti would still have the opportunity to apply for protection and it would be the Refugee Commissioner who would decide whether or not to grant her this.