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Karl Schembri
Government is setting up a new refugee camp in Hal Far to house up to 600 migrants in canvas tents, as they wait to be released soon from detention centres.
The new tent compound is expected to be opened near the Civil Protection Department’s headquarters as government is faced with a shortage of new spaces to house hundreds of migrants about to be released, while more migrants are expected to reach Malta’s shores as summer approaches.
A spokesperson for the ministry for social solidarity, whose remit includes open centres, confirmed the project that has just started.
“There’s a need for accommodation in open centres and at the moment this is the space we have identified,” the spokesperson said.
The Detention Services Unit already mans a tent compound in Lyster Barracks used to house migrants still under detention. But the new open centre is feared by people working with migrants to be largely inadequate for long-term accommodation.
“The heat is stifling in summer, and in winter the cold is unbearable,” a person working with migrants said. “When it’s very windy the tents also risk collapsing, and that can be very dangerous if there are people inside.”
The minister’s spokesperson insisted the new compound will be an open centre.
“People there will be free to come and go at will, as is the case in the other open centres,” the spokesperson said.
kschembri@mediatoday.com.mt
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