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Illegal immigrants request refugee status

Despite a court decision handed down yesterday, the 57 African illegal immigrants that were shipwrecked in Paradise Bay on Thursday, will not be deported pending the outcome of their request to be given refugee status.

The shipwrecked immigrants appeared in court yesterday in front of Magistrate Antonio Micallef Trigona charged with being in Malta illegally. The Court sentenced the immigrants to one month in prison suspended for a year and ordered their immediate deportation.

However, the deportation order will have to wait until the newly-appointed Commissioner for Refugees, Charles Buttigieg, gets to interview each and every person to decide on the eligibility for refugee status. In accordance with United Nations practice, if the immigrants are found to warrant refugee status they cannot be deported and will be allowed to stay in Malta.