It's not detention - it's imprisonment

There is nothing honest about our policy of indefinitely imprisoning illegal immigrants who land in this country, often on the way to Italy, seeking a better future for themselves and their loved ones back home.

Even the words we use are misleading. We have come to accept the notion that the facilities with armed guards and barbed wire fences are not prisons, they are "detention centres". And the men, women and children of assorted nationalities housed inside are not prisoners; they are "detainees" who are merely being "detained".

These words are far too genteel. Detention is something I used to get in secondary school when I was caught mimicking my Form I teacher. And to most people, being detained represents nothing more than a slight delay in your schedule. It certainly is not the "despicable and degrading" handcuffing of immigrants being taken to hospital, condemned recently by our Ombudsman.

Malta is a party to the 1984 Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Malta's Refugee Act of 2000 provides for the granting of refugee or asylum status in accordance with the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol. The law provides for refugee status, access to free social services and education, residence permits and travel documents. Work permits for refugees can be issued on a case-by-case basis. Amendments to the law have expanded due process and the protection available to refugees applying for asylum and established a refugee commission and an appeals board to review asylum applications. For this, at least, the Ministry for Justice and Home Affairs deserves credit.

Over the last three years our Refugee Commission has received applications for refugee or humanitarian status in respect of 1,195 persons and approved 600 of them. There are still some 31 cases in process, including 18 involving unaccompanied minors. But, thankfully, since the appointment of the Commissioner for Refugees, the average time it takes to process applications has gone down dramatically, from some eight months to three.

But I would still argue that what is happening to our illegal immigrants is not detention; it is imprisonment. They are being abused. They are being demeaned and held up as examples to deter others from coming to Malta. Justice Minister Tonio Borg himself unashamedly owned up to it several times. It is a gross abuse of human rights.

Alvaro Gil-Robles, the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights, has now reported on his visit to Malta late last year.

He has not accused Malta of breaching human rights. However, he did criticise various inadequacies in our three detention centres and insisted that it is unacceptable for illegal immigrants to be detained for unduly long periods before their application (for refugee status) is processed.

A few weeks after Mr Gil-Robles's visit, the government transferred some 80 Eritrean and Ethiopian migrants from detention to an open centre. A move in the right direction, though Fr Dyonisius Mintoff, of the Peace Laboratory, in welcoming it, described it as creating a "legal limbo" for the persons concerned.

Recent media reports have spoken of a number of asylum seekers having been admitted to Mount Carmel Hospital while being detained and have also reported various incidents including one where some dozen immigrants or refugees became violent. Prolonged detention may be seriously affecting the mental health of the inmates at Ta' Kandja.

The government has gone a considerable way towards remedying shortcomings highlighted by Mr Gil-Robles and Malta's Ombudsman, but it is not enough.

Human rights are not a pick and mix assortment of luxury entitlements. They come as a package; we ignore one at the expense of all of them and exclude one person, even a national of another country, from their enjoyment at the risk of excluding all of us. Human rights in Malta are not the privilege of Maltese citizens only and their necessary curtailment in the case of illegal immigrants needs to be balanced at all times against the risk of excessive restriction of fundamental freedoms.

I was talking recently to a person who has frequent contact with the illegal immigrants and he told me that if you look at the faces of some of the men, women and children - and I mean really look - you cannot help but be moved. Their eyes reflect our inhumanity, our racism, our fears.

They left their country with the same hopes and dreams as our parents, grandparents, great-grandparents when they went to England, Canada and Australia. They left wanting a better life for themselves and, more importantly, for their children. They left aboard overcrowded boats, risking their lives, because they knew that to stay in their country of birth either posed an even greater risk or was devoid of any hope for the future.

They left seeking either freedom or a more decent way of life and they ended up prisoners. Prisoners of an administration violating the spirit, if not the letter, of international refugee law spelled out in treaties that Malta has signed.

And why not? When it comes to these immigrants, few people in this country hold a favourable opinion. We think of them as dirty, lazy, unproductive. Of course, to actually know someone from most of the countries involved is to know that such stereotypes are untrue.

But such perceptions work to the government's advantage. Often I hear: "So what if the immigrants are held in detention centres. It serves them right. They broke our laws and violated our borders. They should go to jail; they're criminals". Look at the comment posted by a certain "Edric" on Moviment Graffiti's website on September 9, 2002: "I do not support the acceptance of non-Europeans in Europe as I am a Nationalist who loves both his Nation and his European Race. Accepting non-Europeans in our lands is accepting an attack to our sovereignty and integrity of our National and Racial Integrity, and I do not support that. If current immigration movements continue in the current manner most European Nations' Native people will lose their Ethnic Majority in their own lands, while other non-European Nations won't".

But that's not true. They're not criminals, they're refugees requesting political asylum or immigrants in search of an opportunity to have at least a menial, low-paid job somewhere in Europe. Even "Edric" realised this when he added that improved aid to the under-developed countries could possibly end emigration of the poorest of the world to Europe.

The goal of the government of this country, known for centuries as "Malta hanina, hobza u sardina", is simple. It is to psychologically and emotionally break these illegal immigrants so that they will want to return to their country of origin and let others know that Malta is no gate to their dreams. And it works. After spending months and months locked away, isolated from normal human intercourse, many are tempted simply to abandon their claims for asylum or ask to be sent home.

Elaine Mizzi, Graffiti's spokesman on human rights, believes the government should set up hostels run by NGOs. Such hostels would provide asylum seekers with accommodation and social support in an effort to enable them to eventually become self-sufficient.

No one wants a mass inflow of illegal immigrants from Africa and other continents. But there are better ways to keep that from happening than imprisoning children.

PS. I would like to thank the Refugee Commissioner, Charles Buttigieg and the Ombudsman for their cooperation. Questions referred to the Commissioner of Police and the Ministry for Justice and Home Affairs were either answered skimpily or ignored entirely through the traditional public service (!) rigmarole of referring me from one to the other.