The decision to use tear gas was taken when the asylum seekers tried to break beds to use metal rods. A police report later established that using tear gas in an enclosed space was a bad decision. Disciplinary action was reported to have been taken against three members of the SAG.

31 December 2000

Riot at Grand Harbour after a number of Tunisian nationals were stopped from entering Malta as asylum seekers. They had arrived on board MV Carthage but were found to be without valid documents. The police stopped 200 from entering illegally, but around 60 escaped. Of the latter, at least 30 were rounded up. The Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) and the SAG had to intervene. A policeman suffered injuries when a knife was thrown from the ship. The Tunisian ambassador intervened to calm the situation.

14 November 2002

Riot by asylum seekers at the immigration reception centre at Hal Far. A group of around 30 asylum seekers from Ghana and Liberia caused damage to benches and other items. The police were called in. The reason for the revolt was linked to their applications for refugee status.

2 December 2002

Protest by asylum seekers who were asking to be repatriated to Ghana. Their deportation had been planned for the following Thursday and they were threatening to riot if this date was not adhered to.

17 June 2003

Riot by asylum seekers at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) yard at the police headquarters in Floriana. Damage to property, including five police cars, caused during the uprising. A police constable had to be taken to St Luke’s Hospital suffering from head injuries after being hit by a bed frame during a display of violence by asylum seekers. A second police officer was slightly injured. The police had tried to use riot gear to control the asylum seekers totalling around 150 from Somalia, Libya, Iraq, Eritrea, Palestine and Ethiopia. Incidents were sparked off by discontent of asylum seekers at being incarcerated. Six asylum seekers were arraigned in court two days later in connection with the incident. A second riot was nipped in the bud, police commissioner John Rizzo told a press conference on 20 June.

20 June 2003

Iraqi nationals who fled their country at the outbreak of war resisted deportation. During the revolt at the Hal Far detention centre, the asylum seekers set some mattresses and doors on fire. They shouted that they would do anything to escape and would not return to Iraq. Asylum seekers from Liberia insisted on speaking to police commissioner John Rizzo but were informed that he was overseas.

24 July 2003

Asylum seekers caused havoc at police headquarters in Floriana. The SAG were called in to control the attempted riot which was being encouraged by two asylum seekers in particular.

9 August 2003

Asylum seekers protested at police headquarters in Floriana, but a full-scale riot was prevented. It appears the trouble started when food was being distributed.

6 September 2003

Riot by asylum seekers being kept at Safi Barracks. They attacked the soldiers’ guard room, and the soldiers could not control them as they numbered 75. At one point the situation was precarious. Later on an argument arose among some family members and a soldier who went to calm the situation was injured.

2 November 2003

Asylum seekers rioted at Hal Far immigration reception centre, which was extensively damaged. A mattress was set on fire, which spread to the soffit, causing damage to the electricity system. The asylum seekers were temporarily transferred to police headquarters in Floriana while repairs were carried out. Sources claimed the trouble started the day before, following the discovery of a number of pills in the possession of an illegal immigrant.

3 November 2003

A 31-year-old Algerian asylum seeker, Abdul Hakim Gernout Omar, was discovered hanging from a window at police headquarters detention centre in Floriana, having used bandages to hang himself. Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg said that the victim’s application for refugee status had been turned down twice by the UN High Commission for Refugees. Ghernout had been arrested in Birzebbugia in April 2001 and declared an “illegal immigrant” in January 2002.

25 January 2004

Riot at Mount Carmel Hospital. Asylum seekers and other patients in Ward 1 began fighting and the police had to be brought in to control the situation. Sources claimed one asylum seeker had tried to kill a Maltese national in order to draw Government’s attention to the fact that they could not bear being detained any longer.

26 January 2004

Asylum seekers rioted in the Male Admission Acute Ward of Mount Carmel Hospital over a hospital decision to move one of them to the Seclusion Ward. The man was found trying to commit suicide by hanging. Eleven Maltese patients in the ward were moved to safety. Police and the SAG were called in to control the asylum seekers who were cutting themselves with glass and threatening to kill a Maltese person. The situation was brought under control but police remained in the ward for the night.

31 August 2004

A 35-year-old Tunisian asylum seeker, Sliem Belti, was allegedly killed by another Tunisian asylum seeker following a fight earlier in the day at the Hal Safi detention centre. Sources said that in the middle of the night, as the victim was asleep, the assailant apparently struck him several times on the head with a metal leg taken from a bed. The alleged assailant, Hammadi Ben Abdallah Rumdani, 46, was arraigned in court the following day. Both had arrived in Malta illegally on 22 June and were expecting official repatriation documents from the Tunisian embassy.

1 September 2004

Police had to intervene twice to stop a Libyan asylum seeker who started cutting himself with a blade at Mount Carmel Hospital. In the first instance, the man was disarmed by the police peacefully, interrogated at length and then re-admitted to his cell. A few hours later, the police were called again because the man had got another blade and was cutting himself again. When a police inspector and a police sergeant entered his cell, the man threatened them with the blade. However the situation was controlled within a few minutes and the man was rushed to St Luke's Hospital to ascertain whether he had swallowed any blades. The man had been involved in the incidents at the same hospital months ago when a number of nursing staff had been injured.