On the eve of Easter Sunday, gathered outside the Peace Lab in Hal Far with Father Dijonisju Mintoff, the men, mostly from Sudan, Sierra Leone, Eritrea, Cameroon and Congo, embraced each other as they came to terms with the fact that after years of detention, they are now free to pick up the broken pieces and look at a possibly brighter future.

Until they find a better future, possibly in Italy, they will live in an ‘open centre’ in Hal Far. They recall their ‘passion’ – the illegal trip to Malta, and consequently living in limbo, detained, not knowing if and when someone would listen to their cause.

They miss their families, some have not spoken to their wives or children since they got here two, or more years ago. They applied for refugee status in Malta, and were rejected. They appealed again to receive another negative reply.

Had they known what they would have to go through they would probably have never taken the risk. Now it’s too late to turn back time.

They told me they left their country thinking they were on their way to Italy where other relatives of theirs had already made it before them. But when they realised their journey had been interrupted and ended in Malta instead, they hoped that as a Catholic country Malta would give them, if nothing at all, their right to freedom.

Fr Mintoff well known for his work with asylum seekers, told The Malta Independent on Sunday, that as from yesterday the police committed themselves to release groups of detained immigrants, starting with the release of those who had been detained longest.

Fr Mintoff said this was the first time the police and the Armed Forces of Malta had sought to personally communicate with the men.

The youngest of the group is 18 years old, the eldest 43. Some want to practice their profession as footballers, others are medical doctors and engineers but in Malta they felt they were nothing but rejects of society.

“We have been penalised for a crime we do not know about...at times even animals are treated better than us. We are human beings, we want to live. Can you imagine living not knowing what is going to happen to you for years, day after day – silence,” one man from Sudan said.

Others complained they had been detained for over one year before even given the right to apply for refugee status, some said they were intimidated by the manner in which the official interview to apply for refugee status took place.

“Many of our friends died during our trip here, while in Malta others developed mental illnesses as a result of a lengthy and unnecessary detention,” they said. “Malta is a God-blessed land, a Catholic country but...there is a need for new policy on immigration...we lived in a prison-like environment, there are no facilities, nothing. We never knew when and if ever we were going to live a better life. This at least is the first step.”

Many said had despaired of the situation they were in and suicide attempts had increased. One man from the group had an injured leg, I asked what had happened. He tells me he is scarred for life after trying to run away one day and fell.

Fr Mintoff, David Spiteri and MP Joe Abela, who are involved in the Peace Lab, have worked tirelessly for the cause of these men and women crying out for help.

The freedom of the group coincides with the end of a hunger strike by another group of immigrants. Thanks to them this group of immigrants was given freedom – a similar grace was given to another group last Christmas.

But more centres are needed, and while the government has opened as many centres as it can to accommodate the immigrants, the Church has not offered the many centres which could be converted into temporary homes for those seeking refugee status in Malta, and whose application is still pending or has been rejected.

Ironically, one man from Sudan was wearing a T-shirt showing the logo of the EU. He points at the 12 stars on his T-shirt and tells me he hopes once Malta joins the EU, new immigration policies will be implemented.