Council of Europe report expected in February

The Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights, Alvaro Gil-Robles, is expected to conclude his report on the detention of asylum seekers in Malta by the middle of next month, his spokesman said.

Speaking to The Times from Strasbourg, the spokesman said the report would be presented at a meeting of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. The meeting will also be attended by Malta's permanent representative to the Council of Europe.

The document would be made public.

Mr Gil-Robles visited Malta a few months ago but refrained from saying whether the island was breaching human rights, telling journalists to "wait and see".

However, he did say that: "In comparison to your prisons, the detention centres here in Malta are shocking. This is an area which needs urgent action".

A sudden influx of illegal immigrants over the past 18 months had put considerable strain on Malta's detention centres, causing overcrowding and long delays in document processing.

Mr Gil-Robles had said it was unacceptable for illegal immigrants to be detained for one to two years before their application (for refugee status) was processed. Such processing, he said, should not take longer than a year.

A few weeks after Mr Gil-Robles visit, the government transferred some 80 Eritrean and Ethiopian migrants from detention to an open centre.