Safi detention centre detainees have lamented that the food at the centre is inedible, the Monitoring Board for Detained Persons says in its annual report.
“Board members were at times shown small aluminium containers containing ravioli or pasta in red sauce which had been thrown away unopened due to it being inedible,” the board said.
“Complaints regarding food and water far outnumbered complaints on any other issue,” it added.
The board highlighted the issue in a letter to Home Affairs Minister Michael Farrugia and asked that the contract with the caterer was audited “given that the meals were being procured through public funds”.
After a meeting with ministry staff, the contractor, the head of the detention centre and the board members, the menu at the detention centre was changed.
“Following this meeting, for a period of time, there were no complaints regarding the quality of the food,” the board said.
Continuous training of personnel needed to be more comprehensive
The board also said there did not appear to be interaction between staff and detained persons, adding that continuous training of personnel needed to be more comprehensive.
The lack of an alarm system in the area housing detained persons was also criticised.
This was noted in previous reports, but the situation had yet to be addressed. “To date, the only way in which detained persons and members of the board visiting the centre can alert the detention personnel on duty is by shouting and banging on the iron doors,” the board said.
It also recommended that cubicles or other separators would be installed between beds, so that the privacy of detainees was respected.
Detainees, sometimes, use a blanket to segregate their bed from others, making the place look “very shabby”.
The annual report, tabled in Parliament, said that at the end of 2017, 11 people were being detained in the Safi centre. Throughout the year, 198 people from 39 countries spent time at the centre.
In the annual report, the board noted that the years 2016 and 2017 were relatively calm, in view of the low number of detainees at the centre.
“Such periods of low activity should be utilised for the continuation of specialised training of the detention staff and the ongoing maintenance of facilities,” the report said.
It also suggested that an architect should be appointed to inspect and report on urgent works that needed to be done to safeguard the requirements of detained persons.