Deputies vet Malta’s detention centres

Date: 16/03/06

A European Parliament delegation will visit Malta next week (22-23 March) to examine the conditions in which migrants are being detained on the island.

About 1,100 migrants are being detained in Malta, according to figures released by the Valetta government.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has complained that the Maltese authorities detain nearly all asylum-seekers and migrants who arrive on the island. "Detention should be the exception," said Judith Kumin, director of the UNHCR's Brussels office. "In Malta, it is the rule."

Human rights groups have reported that hygiene, recreational facilities, access to information and medical care for detainees are poor, although they concede that the Maltese authorities have made efforts to ensure that migrants can be seen by doctors.

Katrine Camilleri from the Jesuit Refugee Service in Malta said that there had been "arbitrary changes in policy". Although the authorities had promised that detentions would not exceed 18 months, seven individuals whose bids for asylum have been rejected have been held for longer than that period, she added.

But Simon Busuttil, an MEP with Malta's ruling Nationalist Party, said the "issue of detention has to be part of the equation".

Although he criticised xenophobic comments being made in the Maltese media, he said that the large numbers of migrants were having an impact on Malta's population.

More than 1,800 migrants landed on Maltese shores during 2005, most of them from sub-Saharan Africa. This would be the equivalent of 400,000 arriving in Germany or 300,000 arriving in Italy, the Maltese authorities estimate.

Malta has been arguing that EU development aid should be made partly conditional on African countries being willing to take back migrants from their countries. But the UNHCR and relief agencies have argued that it would be wrong to use development aid in this way.

Article reports that a European Parliament delegation was to visit Malta on 22-23 March to examine the conditions in which migrants were being detained on the island.