Place of detention

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In terms of the Places of Detention Designation Order,[1] 10 places are designated as places of detention in terms of the Immigration Act. In practice, the ones used throughout 2024 for the purposes of administrative detention were:

• Ħal Far Initial Reception Centre (China House). This is used to detained newly arrived persons not deemed vulnerable and, subsequently, as a regular detention centre;
• Ħal Far Open Centre (HOC). Although not formally listed as a place of detention, newly arrived vulnerable persons are detained here for health-based reasons following the closure of the Marsa IRC. HOC is composed of a number of metal containers surrounded a large hangar, with shared spaces for toilets and showers;
• Safi Barracks. The largest detention centre, holding applicants as well as rejected asylum-seekers and persons set to be removed from Malta. Although the main population is single men, Safi also has a section for unaccompanied children in the age assessment procedure and also a section for single women. Safi Barracks are the headquarters for the Armed Forces of Malta, so the area is a heavily militarised space. The spaces designed for detention, including meeting rooms, clinics and other buildings for administrative use, are generally metal containers whilst one zone is a building on two floors, with large, shared bedrooms. All areas have an outdoor fenced-in space;
• The policy custody space at Malta International Airport. This space is used for persons who, having attempted to enter Malta without fulfilling entry requirements and denied entry, are returned on the same or next flight back to the country they had flown to Malta from.

The Detention Centres are managed by the Detention Services (DS), until 2023 a public entity established and regulated by the Detention Services Regulations[2] and formalised into a public Agency in 2023.[3]

[1] S.L. 217.03, 1996, available at: https://tinyurl.com/47zzyrah.

[2] Detention Services Regulations, S.L. 217.19.

[3] Detention Services Agency (Establishment) Order, S.L. 595.45, 2023, available at: https://tinyurl.com/3t4txnu7.