Thirty migrants refuse to end hunger strike

The 30 migrants detained at Hal Far continued their hunger strike yesterday even after Peace Lab director Dionysius Mintoff pleaded with them as he had successfully done on Monday with the 38 detainees at Ta' Kandja and the 75 at Safi barracks.

The hunger strike at Safi and ta' Kandja was halted after Fr Mintoff told the immigrants that although he could not promise them freedom he could promise his support, as he strongly opposed detention.

The hunger strikers are protesting against their prolonged detention.

Fr Mintoff yesterday criticised the government's detention policy pointing out that lack of privacy was not the only problem.

"What about the mental scars that detention centres leave in people's souls? What about the nervous breakdowns? What about all the problems that prison inflicts on the human spirit," Fr Mintoff asked.

"It is hard to imagine that Malta, a country whose ethos is based on strong faith, pursues a course of action pretty much against the moral belief of Christianity."

It was argued that illegal immigration could cause a problem to a country like Malta, Fr Mintoff said. But there was no evidence that tens of thousands of illegal immigrants had really created much economic chaos, induced poverty, stolen jobs from the locals, or caused degeneration.

"What is the idea of creating a xenophobic society that looks down upon immigrants as if they are there to spread diseases, terror, crime and other things?"

As the European Commission stated in its findings recently, the Maltese government needed to provide better education to the public about asylum seekers and illegal immigrants, he added.