Immigrants' detention under fire, again

Malta's detention of illegal immigrants came under fire by the Italian Parliamentary Committee on Immigration yesterday, which questioned whether human rights were being breached.

The Italian committee is in Malta for three days to learn about the methods being used by the government to control illegal immigration and the surveillance of frontiers in view of the policy of cooperation between Malta and the EU.

Committee member Pietro Tidei said that although Malta was a very densely populated island, it was acting too rigidly with illegal immigrants and was being heavy handed by locking them up for up to two years.

It was the second time in a week that Malta's treatment of illegal immigrants came under fire, the first being a report by the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights which lambasted the conditions in which illegal immigrants are detained.

In Italy, it is criminals that are kept in detention and not desperate individuals who are seeking to better their lives, Mr Tidei, a member of the Schengen, Europol, and Immigration Committee, said during a news conference. One had to bear in mind, he noted, that, in all probability, the ultimate destination of these individuals was mainland Europe and not Malta.

Alberto di Luca, president of the committee, agreed that Malta and Italy shared a common problem because of the vast Libyan border, where thousands of asylum seekers were waiting to be ferried to Europe.

He explained that an estimated 82 per cent of the illegal immigrants that landed in Italy actually moved on further north, with just 18 per cent seeking new pastures in Italy.

These had served to service sectors such as agriculture, where operators were crying out for workers.

Italy has in fact agreed on a quota of illegal immigrants that could be absorbed to ensure the economy was sustained across the board.

During a meeting with Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg, the Italian committee discussed a coordinated system between the police and EU member states and the drafting of a common repatriation policy.