Riot police and the use of teargas are, thankfully, not very common sights in Malta. But that was precisely the scene at Safi on Tuesday as migrants at the Safi detention centre, riot police and the army faced off against each other in the first violent clash of its kind since 2009.

First off, the scenes at Safi this week were wholly deplorable. There are no ifs and/or buts about that, let us be perfectly clear. And those responsible for causing damage and injury need to face the brunt of the law.

But, as deplorable as they may be one can hardly blame people who have committed no crime but to seek asylum in another country, and who are then automatically imprisoned for 12 months, only to learn that they are most likely to be repatriated from where they had first set off, after serving a further six months in prison.

Whether one is deserving of international humanitarian protection or not, one has to concede that such a situation, coupled with the accompanying legal limbo, is frustrating to say the least. Then factor in the trouble, turmoil and hardships these particular people have been through before leaving and on their way to finding themselves here in Malta.

This week’s riot was not a protest against the Armed Forces or Detention Services, the protest was over the government’s policy of automatic detention. In fact, the fact that flare ups at the country’s detention centres are as infrequent as they actually are probably speaks volumes for the way such centres are run. Given the psychological and physical situations of people inside the detention centre, one would imagine scenes such as this week’s to be far more common than they are.

But since Tuesday’s protest, the usual voices have been spouting the same old invectives along the same old lines that these “guests” in our country should show some respect. Firstly, they are not guests. Beneficiaries of international protection are exactly that – beneficiaries of international protection. We should all consider ourselves fortunate, thanks to our place of birth, that we will most likely never have to apply for asylum or humanitarian protection.

In previous years Malta had been inundated with migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, migrants fleeing famine and disease, war, murder and torture, ethnic and religious cleansing and persecution. Above all else these are people who have an international legal right to seek and apply for asylum in countries such as Malta.

Any irregular migrant landing in Malta is automatically detained for a maximum 12-month period or until their claim for asylum is heard and decided upon. An asylum seeker is released from detention if their claim for asylum is still pending after a year.

If the answer to the claim is in the negative and if their subsequent appeal is turned down, the period of detention is automatically extended to 18 months, which is what the source of this week’s riot was.

Despite drawbacks from the humanitarian perspective, this policy had served Malta well. It had served as a sort of floating deterrent at the height of the migratory phenomenon. In fact, one would be very hard-pressed to find a sub-Saharan migrant resident in Malta who would tell you this had been their intended destination.

Incidents such as those at Safi this week serve as a stark reminder of the daunting challenges Malta had faced not so long ago, and the question remains as to whether the country can afford to do away with its policy of automatic detention.

But while Malta cannot afford, especially when we have seen what EU solidarity consists of, to do away with that deterrent, what it can do is to perhaps make life inside those detention centres, centres for asylum seekers and not criminals, more liveable.