Fr Grech Marguerat made this remark in reaction to questions from the floor after the launch of a JRS Europe document entitled Detention in Europe: Administrative Detention of Asylum Seekers and Irregular Immigrants.

He said: “Arbitrary, indefinite detention of irregular migrants, as well as detention policies, have always occupied a top position on the JRS’ agenda.”

Fr Grech Marguerat said the JRS does not agree with the government’s policy of detaining illegal immigrants. “It does not act as a deterrent, it does not help in establishing people’s identity; instead it criminalises them, normalises exclusion and administrative imprisonment – which also sparks xenophobia and racism – and is an enormous financial burden,” he said. He said it was gravely worrying that detention has been shifted from being a means to facilitate the removal of designated individuals to becoming a reception policy for all.

“The policy is also in stark contrast to the recent political agreement with the EU Council for Justice and Home Affairs, which stipulates that no EU member shall hold a person in detention for the sole reason of being an asylum seeker,” he said.

Fr Grech Marguerat said the JRS-Europe document, issued on 1 October, was extensive and was intended to inform, alert and serve as an advocacy tool on the rights of detainees.

“It contains an overview of detention centres (including Malta), EU detention policies and national legislation, as well as the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR) and public international law,” he explained.

He appealed for the European Parliament and the Council of Europe to draft a common definition of detention and detention centres and to compile and update a publicly accessible list of detention centres in the whole of Europe.He said JRS-Europe asked the European Commission to set up an EU system and body, independent of the detention centres, to monitor and report on the development of national legislation on detention and detention practices in Europe. He explained that the document also contained a list of criteria regarding which people should not be put into detention.

These include pregnant women, children, older children, people with psychiatric problems and post-natal mothers.

“We have seen some improvement with children who arrive in Malta, but more still needs to be done. With a policy of detention, we are making the Maltese people think that these people are criminals whereas law clearly states that they are not,” he said.

He said that the European Human Rights Commissioner had paid a visit to various Maltese detention centres and said that conditions were not good enough. “Take Safi barracks for example; there are 350 people living in tents. It rained last Tuesday night and they had to bed down for the night in mud,” he said.

“There are no set standards. We have a situation where soldiers are looking after these people and they cannot do so satisfactorily because they do not have the right training,” he said.

The JRS also says that Malta’s processing of asylum applications is not quick enough. “People have waited months and even up to a year for their application to be processed and that was not good enough. Things have improved and applications are processed within a few months. But a couple of months in detention is still harmful,” said Fr Grech Marguerat.

Fr Marguerat said the full extent of trauma caused by such detention could not be quantified. “Detention does lead to racism and xenophobia. The Maltese people only see these asylum seekers in a bad light, because only negative things appear in the media,” he said.

He also said that pictures of immigrants arriving in Malta, handcuffed and being taken to court had been circulated around the world. “Also the fact that Malta and Europe have a closed immigration policy does not help in the slightest. Such a situation is leading to the plight of refugees and asylum seekers being undermined because economic migrants get thrown into the mix,” he said.

Fr Grech Marguerat said that all relevant stakeholders needed to get together to properly discuss the issue to find alternatives to find a solution. “Detention is not a deterrent, and we need to find an alternative,” he concluded.