The Government yesterday published the report drawn up by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), following an on-site inspection of Malta’s detention centres which was carried out in January 2004.

The report was actually given to the government in July 2004, after which the government replied with its own report in December. In a Department of Information statement issued yesterday, the government said it was not obliged to publish the report, as the document was confidential.

Since the visits in January 2004, the committee made another visit to the local irregular immigrants facilities last June, to check whether the Maltese authorities had implemented the committee’s recommendations.

Many of the issues on which the report strongly criticised the government have since been dealt with or are being addressed now. However, there is no mention of the incidents at Safi Barracks. TMID is informed that this issue was touched upon during the recent visit, but it is not known whether it will be included in a new report.

The CPT acknowledges the challenge posed to Malta by irregular immigration and that many of the immigrants they interviewed did not intend to end up in Malta in the first place. However, it criticised the conditions many of the immigrants were being kept in at the time of the report and questioned the investigations that were carried out into some of the reported incidents.

The committee criticised the report prepared by the police in respect of incidents which took place at the Ta’ Kandja illegal immigrants quarters in September 2002. Police officers had fired five rubber bullets at some immigrants to end a violent protest.

The investigation carried out by the police was no more than an internal report and not an independent third party inquiry as would have been appropriate, the CPT noted. The government made amendments and appointed a retired judge to carry out a separate inquiry. The outcome, as with that of the beatings at Safi, is still pending.

Questioning the investigation itself, the CPT noted that some 20 police officers were interviewed yet the two victims, as well as other foreign nationals who were present at the scene, were not. Furthermore, the CPT suggests that the use of truncheons would have been more appropriate to that of rubber bullets.

In connection with another case, a government press release attached to the report yesterday said following a beating which took place at Ta’ Kandja barracks in 2003, the police carried out an internal inquiry and disciplinary action was taken against officers.

The CPT report speaks of the Special Assignment Group entering two dormitories after a quarrel between two immigrants and “kicking and punching everyone in the room and destroying personal belonging and furniture”.

With regard to the situation at the detention centres generally, the CPT also reported on the tense atmosphere that is felt at these centres and on the various allegations of verbal abuse by police and, to a lesser degree, by army personnel.

Generally, the centres were described as “prison like”, a fact which is not consistent with the country’s own decriminalisation of irregular immigration. Expressing itself against the policy of detention in the first place, the CPT said that: “In those cases where it is deemed necessary to deprive people of their liberty under the immigration legislation for an extended period, they should be accommodated in centres specifically designed for that purpose, offering material conditions and a regime appropriate to their legal situation and staffed by suitably-qualified personnel.”

Instead, the CPT reported on the dismal state of the bathrooms in almost all the detention centres, the lack of heating in most areas – with the immigrants not even being provided with winter clothing or proper blankets, and the over-crowding.

At the Hal Far reception centre, for example, almost all the windows lacked glass. The immigrants had to make do with cardboard, which in turn limited their access to natural light.

At Safi Barracks – like Hal Far without any heating – the night temperature inside was reported to fall to 6 – 8° Celsius on the ground floor. Lyster Barracks was reportedly in better condition, although the sanitary facilities were deemed to be in a deplorable state. Here too there was no form of heating.

In its reply, the government pointed out the hefty investment in the provision of new, purpose-built accommodation. To date, no journalist has been able to see first hand conditions at the new compounds, nor at any of the old barracks. However, a visit is being planned by the Ministry to a compound of its choice.