Seven asylum seekers charged with Hal Far protest

Seven migrants residing at the Hal Far Detention Centre were handed a two-year suspended jail term upon conviction of being part of a riot which took place yesterday at the centre.

John Kwaku, 25, from Ghana, Nigerians Ernest Eselebor, 29, Darlington Ubhimihye, 31, Jonathan Moses, 23, Jude Austin, 31, Wisdom Erhunmwunse, 29, and a 17-year-old pleaded guilty to assaulting and police and Detention Services officers.

They also admitted to causing  damage to government property and conspiring to commit an offence. The migrants apologised for their actions.

Considering their clean criminal records of the accused and their apology, Magistrate Edwina Grima handed them a year's jail term suspended for two years.

Legal aid lawyer Simon Micallef Stafrace represented the migrants.

The presence of four MPs at the Hal Far migrant reception centre provoked a show of unrest by detained asylum seekers, in which shots were heard to be fired.

MaltaToday confirmed that four shots of rubber pellets were fired to the ground, so that the richochet repels the detainees, but nobody was said to have been injured or required hospitalisation from the police intervention.

Having initially denied that rubber bullets had been used - claiming that a taser gun was used which was "however not fully charged" - the ministry for home affairs issued a statement confirming that rubber pellets had been fired as warning shots. It insisted, though, that no migrants were shot at.

Police and members of the Armed Forces were called in to calm down what was described as a "protest" taking place at the Hal Far centre, after MPs Jason Azzopardi, Deborah Schembri, Marlene Farrugia and Claudette Buttigieg - from the social affairs committee's sub-committee on migration - arrived there on a fact-finding mission.

Six NGOs have spoken out against Malta's mandatory detention policy, which has been repeatedly condemned by the European Court of Human Rights, in light of yesterday's riot at Ħal Far Detention Centre.

NGO's Aditus Foundation, Integra Foundation, JRS Malta, KOPIN, the People for Change Foundation, and SOS Malta have once again expressed the need for a radical review of the detention policy, urging the competent authorities to assess the impact, both legal and human, of a policy that violates human rights.

"Whilst we condemn all forms of violent protest, we also note that publicly available information seems to be in contrast to statements provided by the Ministry for Home Affairs and National Security," they added. "This possible divergence underlines the urgent need for the Ministry to establish an independent and speedy inquiry, which should be mandated to objectively establish the course of events before, during and after the riot."