Hundreds of people turned out for a march to highlight problems in Malta’s immigrant detention policy, just weeks after the killing of a Malian in very highly suspicious circumstances. It also came a few days after a report was published on perceptions of integration of immigrants in Malta.

We wrote a few days ago that the biggest problem in Malta seems to be, out of sight, out of mind – and this, we believe, holds true. While most Maltese believe that the presence of Africans in this country does not pose a danger to their way of life, the figures soon dwindle as soon as they are examined by locality.

Those localities which are close to detention or open centres, or host concentrations of Africans, are much more likely to fear that their jobs, culture and identity are at risk. If one looks at Ħal Far, that percentage jumps up to 70%

In addition, many of the respondents to the survey had not even had contact with African nationals. It is clear that there is a problem, and the problem, as pointed out by those who marched in Valletta on Wednesday night, starts with the detention policy.

Addressing the mixed crowd of migrants and Maltese people, Ali Konate, from the Migrants Network for Equality, said people in prison are much better off than those in detention and many believe it is this detention system itself that dehumanises migrants and fuels racism.

A number of other people carried posters with different messages: ‘Justice’, ‘Long-term detention, the most cruel way of wasting our money’, ‘Equality not brutality’, ‘Justice is blind’ and ‘Stop killing black people’.

But at least there is hope. Children of migrants or adopted children of African descent play with their Maltese friends, in the innocence of childhood. Another example was also found at the march with an elderly Maltese woman who participated expressing her belief to The Malta Independent that although Abdalla Mohammed escaped, he should never have been killed. She did not know the man personally but nonetheless felt for him.

Mr Konate explained in his speech that coming to Europe was not the choice of migrants, but was something they had to do, given the hardship and persecution they suffer in their own countries. When one sees just what these people are prepared to go through in search of a better life, then it becomes so abundantly clear.

People cross deserts and fork out their life savings to traffickers who pitch them onto barely seaworthy vessels and point them in the direction of Europe. They know they may be taken into detention, but they risk it anyway.

Many pay the ultimate price, as did 51 people who died of thirst when their vessel floundered off the Tunisian coast. The mercury hit 40 degrees yesterday, and one cannot imagine how compassion for these people can be hard to come by. Only one person survived that trip, and this is only the tip of the iceberg. It is estimated that some 3,000 people lost their lives crossing the Mediterranean last year – and even that is a conservative estimate.

Detention at length on arrival does not help; if anything people who arrive need to be given all the help they need to integrate and contribute to society. It is understood that the identity of people needs to be established, but how many more people need to die, beaten to death? How many more people need to be driven to the edge of sanity and take off to live in caves? This is what detention is doing. Something needs to change – such barbarity does not have a place in our country.