Actions taken by Maltese authorities in recent months have risked lives, prolonged arbitrary detention and seen illegal returns to war-torn Libya, Amnesty International is claiming in a new report.
According to Amnesty, the Maltese government changed its approach to migrant arrivals in 2020, taking unlawful, and sometimes unprecedented, measures to avoid assisting refugees and migrants.
Called Waves of impunity: Malta’s human rights violations, Europe’s responsibilities in the Central Mediterranean, its report says that this has come at a time when arrivals by sea in Malta increased from 1,445 in 2018 to 3,406 in 2019 and 2,161 as of August 31.
“Responding to the upward migration trend in Malta and the perceived insufficient European solidarity – compared to the Maltese government’s demands – in the first half of 2020, the Maltese government resorted to unlawful measures to avoid responsibilities to rescue and accept the disembarkation of refugees and migrants, such as pushbacks from the Maltese SAR region, delayed or denied rescues, re-direction of boats to Italy’s SAR region, denial of a place of safety to disembark and arbitrary detention at sea of refugees and migrants.
“These unlawful measures increased risks to life for hundreds of refugees and migrants,” the report says.
It refers to comments by Prime Minister Robert Abela, who in a letter dated August 25 rejected allegations that Maltese authorities may have ignored distress calls in Malta’s SAR region.
Amnesty acknowledged Malta’s efforts to save lives at sea, however, it flagged cases that show how Maltese authorities “repeatedly breached international obligations”, including by coordinating rescues that delivered people to Libya, which is not a place of safety.
These include the Easter weekend pushback, where a group of rescued people, including women and children, were “unlawfully returned” to Tripoli.
A magisterial inquiry into the case left many questions unanswered, Amnesty International is insisting.
“It is still unknown how 12 people died and how 51 were returned to Libya despite it being illegal to transfer people there,” it said.
The magistrate conducting the inquiry did not hear the testimonies of the people transferred to Libya, nor probe the chain of responsibility to contract the Dar El Salam 1 and instruct it to transfer people to Libya, Amnesty added.
Amnesty International’s report notes that Malta’s “unlawful practices” are the by-product of European Union migration policies that have prioritised reducing arrivals at all costs, and of the member states’ continuing failure to agree on a fair system to share responsibilities for arrivals.
Amnesty recommendations
■ Publicly acknowledge the unlawfulness of policies and practices which led to human rights violations.
■ Ensure adequate SAR resources where they might be needed on the high seas along migration routes.
■ Establish an independent, public inquiry into violations of the rights of refugees and migrants at sea in the Maltese SAR region.
■ Withdraw from the Malta-Libya Memorandum of Understanding and ensure that any form of cooperation with Libya focuses on protecting the human rights of refugees and migrants rather than on their containment in Libya.