15 more Malians released from squalid detention as lawyer steps in to save remaining nine

Fifteen more Malian migrants released from Safi detention centre as volunteer lifts the lid on squalid conditions, lawyer Gianluca Cappitta files constitutional case against removal orders 

Fifteen migrants who were awaiting deportation to Mali were released from the Safi detention centre on Friday.

This means that only nine out of the 33 migrants who were rounded up and detained on 16 November as part of a joint EU programme are still in line for deportation to Mali.

MaltaToday is informed that some of the migrants were released after the Maltese authorities failed to verify their identities with their Malian counterparts. These include migrants who only had Malian connections, such as a parent, and who were housed separately at the detention centre from those with stronger blood ties to the West African country.

In a statement issued later, home affairs minister Carmelo Abela confirmed that the 14 of the detainees could not be identified as Malian during a recent “Mali identification mission” and were therefore released from detention.

The other ten were successfully identified as Mali nationals, but one was released by a court sentence that the police will be challenging. Abela confirmed that efforts up deport the remaining nine migrants remain ongoing. 

Accessing the Safi detention centre is notoriously bureaucratic and indeed a lawyer, Gianluca Capita, who has been engaged to review the case was only granted access to visit the migrants a whole ten days after filing his first request.

Jean Paul Borg is a volunteer with the Integra Foundation
Jean Paul Borg is a volunteer with the Integra Foundation

However Jean Paul Borg, a volunteer with the human rights NGO Integra, was allowed access to the centre on Friday and lift the lid on the squalid conditions that the migrants have been subjected to.

“There are more flies than people. A small room is being shared by four [migrants] on two by two bunk beds,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “The mattress is thin and the pillows have no vest. Tea was presented to most in half plastic water bottles. From what I could see, access to fresh air is very limited. Christmas Day will represent the 41st day of detention. I am not sure it will be a cause for celebration.”

Moreover, Borg told MaltaToday that the guards at the detention centre are “not exactly in favour of inclusion to put it lightly”.

A particularly shocking case involves a migrant who suffers from an allergy, but didn’t have his daily pills on him when he was arrested at the police headquarters last month, after going there to renew his papers.

“He started suffering from allergic attacks, but nobody gave him his pills,” Borg said. “Eventually the attacks got worse and he got suicidal and was transferred to Mount Carmel. Only then was he able to start taking his daily pills again.”

He also warned that last month’s sudden arrests have shook up the migrant community in Malta, with many now paranoid that they will be next in line for deportation.

“We organise Maltese language courses for migrants at the Ministry for Education [in Floriana], but some migrants are now scared to attend because it’s too close to the police headquarters.”

Lawyer files constitutional case to challenge removal orders

Gianluca Cappitta has filed a constitutional case to challenge the legality of removal orders
Gianluca Cappitta has filed a constitutional case to challenge the legality of removal orders

Meanwhile, Gianluca Cappitta – a lawyer at Mifsud & Mifsud Advocates – has filed a constitutional case challenging the legality of removal orders that are automatically issued to irregular migrants upon their arrival in Malta.

This is in an attempt to halt the deportation of the nine migrants who are still locked up inside the Safi detention centre. 

As it stands, migrants only have three days to appeal their removal orders and there is no expiry date on them unless the migrants successfully apply for refugee status.

The Refugee Commissioner has since 2010 been issuing Temporary Humanitarian Protection –New (THp-n) statuses to failed asylum seekers as an ex-gratia type of protection to over-ride removal orders. However, the government has recently decided to scrap the programme, meaning that removal orders are once more kicking in for those under THP-n protection. 

The lack of a timeframe on removal orders also effectively means that there is no time limit on how long migrants can be kept inside detention centres.

However, Cappitta’s constitutional case argues that the current Maltese system is in breach of the UN’s Charter on human rights.

“Three days is by no means an effective remedy for migrants to challenge their removal orders,” he told MaltaToday. “We’re talking about people who have just arrived in Malta, who have just been detained, who encounter language barriers, and who have no idea about the law or their rights.”

He is also arguing that indefiniteness and vagueness of removal orders is in breach of migrants’ human rights.

“When criminals get sentenced in court, they know how much time they’re getting – whether it will be a month, a year or a lifetime. These people aren’t criminals but have no idea how long they’ll be stuck in detention for.

“It's one thing for a removal order to be applied to a migrant who has been living here for a year, but it is even more serious for it to be applied to people have been living in Malta for eight years now. They have been plucked out of society, and something has to be done to help them.”