A United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention will be visiting Malta tomorrow to probe several detention facilities and hold interviews with illegal immigrants and prisoners.

The group accepted an invitation from the government for a five-day visit. It will also hold meetings with the authorities, NGOs and representatives from UN agencies and international organisations.

The delegation will be headed by the group's chairman-rapporteur Manuela Carmena Castrillo, vice-chairman Malick El Hadji Sow and Shaheen Sardar Ali, Roberto Garretón, and Aslan Abashidze.

Meetings are also expected to be held with ministers, judges from the constitutional and criminal courts, the Attorney General, public prosecutors, police and military commanders, correctional services authorities and several monitoring bodies such as the Ombudsman.

A press conference on the initial findings of the working group will be held on Friday. A report will be tabled by the group at its 54th session in Geneva this May.

The five-member working group was set up in 1991 by the former Commission on Human Rights to investigate allegations of arbitrary deprivation of liberty. Its mandate was extended in 1997 to cover the issue of administrative custody of immigrants and asylum seekers.

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