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Karl Schembri
The fate of the 46 Chinese illegal immigrants awaiting repatriation from Malta is unclear as international human rights watchdogs say their treatment will much depend on how the Beijing authorities view their clandestine trip to Sicily earlier this year.
The immigrants from the provinces of Fujian and Zhejian in East China are detained at Police Headquarters in Floriana and none of them have applied for refugee status, according to Police Commissioner John Rizzo, nor are they assisted by lawyers.
Their repatriation date has not been decided yet as investigations about their trafficking to Sicily by Maltese powerboat owners are still ongoing, but previous conflicting reports about the fate of returned Chinese migrants leave questions about their impending repatriation unanswered.
A spokesman at the Chinese Embassy yesterday insisted they will be “treated appropriately” by the authorities.
Asked whether they will be detained, the spokesman said: “I personally don’t think so but I’m afraid I can’t answer your question. What they did is bad, our government definitely disapproves of illegal immigration and we oppose their actions, but they will be treated very appropriately.”
Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg told MaltaToday yesterday that his ministry has never received reports of ill-treatment of Chinese migrants repatriated from Malta.
“We never had the kind of problems you’re suggesting with China,” Borg said. “We have the full cooperation of the Chinese government.”
Reminded that China had a track record of human rights violations, Borg said: “With that argument we would end up repatriating nobody.”
The 46 Chinese nationals had arrived in Malta with regular visas but ended up in Sicily illegally last March.
A spokesperson from Amnesty International said their treatment back in China will depend on how seriously their clandestine trip to Italy is taken by the regime.
“It depends very much on how the Chinese government will view their trip to Italy,” the Amnesty spokesperson said. “If it is seen to be a serious issue, they would presumably be detained on return. In that case, they would be at risk of torture or ill-treatment since such abuses are so widespread in China.”
Chinese who are returned after attempting to emigrate illegally may be subjected to torture, according to widespread reports by human rights watchdogs, although in this case their departure from China was through regular channels.
karl@newsworksltd.com
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