Eight Maltese NGOs have joined forces with an international coalition aimed at countering the practice of arbitrary detention of refugees and asylum seekers in various parts of the world.
The International Coalition on the Detention of Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Migrants is made up of over 100 organisations and individuals, and was officially launched on the occasion of World Refugee Day on Tuesday, 20 June.
It is committed to raising awareness of detention policies and practices in different countries, limiting the use of detention as a policy, advocating alternative measures, and promoting respect for the rights of detainees.
The eight local member NGOs are the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice, the Jesuit Refugee Services (Malta), Moviment Graffiti, Integra Foundation, Koperattiva Kummerc Gust, Kopin, Third World Group and STOPoverty!
Introducing these NGOs at a press conference at St Aloysius College, the JRS’ Fr Paul Pace claimed that the main purpose of this initiative is to pressure the government into reconsidering its controversial detention policy, as well as to recommend alternatives to enforced detention, such as the accommodation of irregular immigrants in open centres.
Replying to questions from the floor, JRS lawyer Dr Katrine Camilleri described many of the problems associated with the policy of detention, including the anomalous situation faced by many ex-detainees whose refugee status application has been turned down. For the most part, these are condemned to an existence of forced mendacity: unable to leave the country, unable to hold down legal employment, and unable even to remain in custody beyond the maximum detention limit of 18 months.
Dr Camilleri also outlined the NGOs’ basic concerns about detention as a policy. In the main, these concerns include: a discrepancy between government policy and the European Charter of Human Rights, in particular Article 5(1)(f); the “unacceptable” length of detention, which can last up to a maximum of 18 months; discrimination between different immigrants brought about by the controversial “12-month rule”; and a certain arbitrariness in the policy’s overall implementation, including rules which appear to change at the whim of the authorities without any adequate explanation.
Dr Camilleri also deplored the fact that, despite repeated government assurances to the contrary, “vulnerable immigrants” (including children, pregnant women, elderly and disabled) were often still held in detention.
The conference was also addressed by an immigrant of African origin who had been detained at the Hal Safi barracks for a period of 10 months. Speaking anonymously, the young man repeatedly broke down while describing the prevailing conditions inside the closed centre.
Among his complaints were the quality of the food, the lack of heating/cooling facilities, a sense of isolation and uncertainty, and that detainees drank from the toilet for lack of clean water. “How can I describe the situation there?” he concluded in tears, “I don’t even want to remember.”
The former detainee also complained about the standards of medical treatment received by immigrants in detention centres, claiming that doctors’ visits were too infrequent and too short for the number of people requiring attention, and also that the medicines dispensed during these visits are often expired.
This newspaper attempted to contact the Health Department for comments regarding these allegations, but at the time of going to press, health director Dr Ray Busuttil was unavailable.