Author
Legal Framework
The policy document published at the end of 2015[1] following the transposition of the Reception Regulations commits to improve the quality of living conditions in the detention centres. The document foresees that detention facilities shall comprise of, or have access to, a clinic, medical isolation facilities, telephone facilities, an office for the delivery of information by the IPA, rooms for interviews with the IPA and NGOs, facilities for leisure, and the delivery of education programmes as well as a place of worship.
According to the Reception Regulations,[2] applicants for international protection shall be detained in specialised facilities and they shall be kept separate, insofar as possible, from third country nationals who are not asylum-seekers. They shall also have access to open-air spaces. Separate accommodation for families shall be put in place in order to guarantee adequate privacy as well as separate accommodation for male and female applicants.
The detention centres are managed by the Detention Service (DS), a public Agency which falls under the Ministry for Home Affairs. The DS was set up specifically “to cater for the operation of all closed accommodation centres; provide secure but humane accommodation for detained persons; and maintain a safe and secure environment” within detention centres.[3] The DS is made up of personnel civilians specifically recruited for the purpose. DS staff receive some in-service training, however people recruited for the post of DS officer are not required to have particular skills or competencies.
The Detention Services Regulations of 2016 provide the necessary framework for adequate receptions conditions to asylum-seekers and migrants detained under the Receptions Regulations or the Immigration Act. Part II of the Regulations provide for rules of conduct for Detention Services officers, Part III concerns the rights of detained persons, Part IV establishes rules on maintenance of security and safety and in particular rules concerning the confinement of a detained persons for safety reasons, medical reasons or due to a violent behaviour, Part V regulates access to the detention centres and Part VI the discharge of detainees.
According to the Regulations, the “purpose of the detention centres shall be to provide for the secure but humane accommodation of detained persons in a regime allowing as much freedom as possible, consistent with maintaining a safe and secure environment.”[4] Accordingly, female detained persons shall be provided with sleeping accommodation separate from male detained persons.[5]
The Regulations provide that every detainee must be provided with a document (known as the “compact“) setting out certain rights to be enjoyed and responsibilities to be undertaken by detained persons during their stay at the detention centres in a language they understand, and a copy of the regulations must be made available to any detained person who requires it.[6]
The Regulations provide that a personal record for each detained person shall be prepared and maintained[7] and the Head Detention Services must provide a detained person enquiring on his case, with an update on the progress of any relevant matter relating to him as follows when this is made available, this includes asylum applications and applications made under the Immigration Act and any judicial proceedings pending before the Immigration Appeals Board or the Maltese Courts.[8]
Detained persons are entitled to retain all their personal property, other than cash, for their own use at the detention centre save where such retention is contrary to the interests of safety or security or is incompatible with the storage facilities provided at the centre.[9] Furthermore, detained persons may wear clothing of their own insofar as it is suitable and clean and are permitted to arrange for the supply of sufficient clean clothing to them from outside the detention centre. Where necessary, all detained persons shall be provided with clothing adequate for warmth and to ensure the detained persons’ health in accordance with arrangements approved by the Minister. Non-governmental organisations shall be permitted to distribute clothing to all detained persons in accordance with arrangements approved by the Head Detention Services. Facilities for the washing and drying of items of clothing shall be provided.[10]
With respect to the food provided to detainees, the Regulations establish that the food must be “wholesome, nutritious, well prepared and served, reasonably varied, sufficient in quantity” and insofar as possible “meet all religious, dietary, cultural and medical needs”. The officer in charge of a centre must furthermore inspect the food at regular intervals and must report any deficiency or defect to the Head Detention Services.[11]
The Regulations provide that accommodation must have adequate lighting, heating, ventilation and fittings adequate for health. Every detained person shall have proper regard for personal hygiene, including toilet articles, separate facilities for females and males, access to facilities to shave and have their hair cut.[12]
All detained persons must be provided with recreational, educational, and physical activities and a library should be provided in every centre. Detainees must be allowed at least 1 hour in the open air every day. Moreover, the practice of religion in detention centres shall take account of the diverse cultural and religious background of detained persons.[13]
All detained persons shall have access to public telephones at the detention centres.[14]
Regarding healthcare, the Regulations provide that every detained person must be given a medical examination by the medical officer or another registered medical practitioner as soon as possible after his admission to the detention centre. Furthermore, the medical officer must report to the officer in charge on the case of any detained person whose health is likely to be injuriously affected by continued detention or any conditions of detention, especially in case of suicidal thoughts. The medical officer shall pay special attention to any detained person whose mental condition appears to require it and make any special arrangements including counselling arrangements which appear necessary for his supervision or care. The Head Detention Services must render a monthly report to the Minister on any incidents arising.[15]
Overall living conditions
Despite the commitments made in the 2015 Strategy Document and the Detention Regulations, the Maltese detention centres have for several years been reported to offer substandard living conditions likely to amount to inhuman and degrading treatment contrary to Article 3 ECHR.
Upon entering a detention centre, all applicants have their personal property confiscated by the PIO. This includes documentation, items of clothing, money, jewellery and mobile phones. A receipt is given, and the items may be retrieved when the applicant is eventually released. Throughout their detention period, applicants are prohibited from using their personal items and are required to wear the clothing provided by the DS, contrary to the Detention Regulations. All items are kept in the store-room of the detention centre. The legal basis for this confiscation is unclear.
NGOs lost access to the living quarters in 2020 and are now only able to visit detainees in a Boardroom on the margin of the Safi Detention Centre. They are therefore unable to provide accurate and detailed information regarding detention conditions other than that information relayed by their clients and by those monitoring bodies permitted access. The UNHCR, which reported still having access to the living quarters, has not provided any comprehensive update on the current situation, remaining largely silent despite the concerns expressed by NGOs and applicants.
The Monitoring Board for Detained Persons is currently the only entity monitoring detention conditions, established as Malta’s National Preventive Mechanism under OPCAT. It is established by the Monitoring Board for Detained Persons Regulations[16] and falls under the Ministry for Home Affairs. The Board is composed of a Chairman, a minimum of two and a maximum of four members, including the secretary appointed by the Minister for Home Affairs. According to the Regulations, the Board reports and monitors on conditions of detention. It is also empowered to investigate complaints from detainees and decide on such complaint. Its opinions are not binding to the Head of the Detention Services. The Board’s activities cover China House, Lyster Barracks and Safi Detention Centre yet not the Marsa Initial Reception Centre as the latter is not formally designated as a detention centre.
The Monitoring Board’s Annual Reports 2021 and 2022, published following a Parliamentary Question, provide information on the Board’s operations for the two years and also conclude with a series of recommendations to the Home Affairs Ministry. The 2021 report’s main recommendations include:
- Immediately and urgently refurbish Block A and the Ħal Far Initial Reception Centre;
- Take effective steps to ensure access to a lawyer by all detained persons, including a list of all NGOs and their services;
- Maintain records of requests to visit lawyers and decisions on these requests;
- Improve access to psycho-social support;
- Provide training to all personnel working in detention centres on social health, including clear messages against use of excessive force and verbal abuse;
- Ensure that all detained persons are granted access to open spaces in order for them to engage in “purposeful activities”;
- Make available a list of available interpreters;
- Improve contact with the outside world, including through setting up a computer room and educational activities;
- Provide facilities for sports and training;
- Improver information-provision activities to ensure humane and individual communication of sensitive information, particularly on asylum applications.
The 2022 report, based on 23 visits to Safi Detention Centre and meetings with stakeholders, repeats many of the above recommendations, and adds the following:
- Urgently refurbish Block A Zone 1, and the room used for distribution of food is described as “not adequate and totally unhygienic”;
- Provide space for persons returned to detention from hospital, particularly when they require further intensive nursing;
- Ensure sufficient personnel to manage the centre and meet the needs of detained persons;
- Introduce an effective complaint system in all blocks at Safi Detention Centre.
According to the Board’s 2023 Annual Report[17], on 1 January 2023 there were 239 persons in detention whilst at the end of December there were 195 persons. It also states that, throughout 2023, a total of 1,705 persons spent time in a detention centre. Whilst the report mentions that the Board found no cases of ill-treatment, it makes the following recommendations:
- Create an emergency plan in the case of a sudden large arrival of persons;
- Increase the number of on-site officers as the recent reductions are having a negative impact on staff and detained persons. The Board also underlines the need to employ professionally-trained staff;
- Strengthen training on prevention of use of excessive force, verbal abuse and disrespectful/provocative behaviour;
- Establish a computer room;
- Provide facilities for sports and training;
- Improve conditions for persons under medical isolation.
NGOs active in detention centres reported that dialogue with the Board was on-going, including through meetings and referral of complaints by detained persons.
In Feilazoo v. Malta, decided in March 2021,[18] the ECtHR found violations of articles 3, 5(1), and 34 ECHR in the case of a Nigerian national placed in immigration detention pending deportation for fourteen months. The applicant’s complaints concerned the conditions of his detention; not being given the opportunity to correspond with the Court without interference by the prison authorities; and being denied access to materials intended to substantiate his application. Regarding article 3, the Court considered several aspects of his detention and concluded, overall, that conditions were inadequate in particular because of the time spent in isolation without exercise (he was kept in a container seventy-five days without access to natural light or air). The Court also noted that he was later unnecessarily detained with individuals under COVID-19 quarantine, a measure that did not comply with basic sanitary requirements. The Court concluded unanimously that the conditions of his detention were a violation of the applicant’s article 3 rights. The findings in this case were also referred to in the more recent case AD v. Malta, summarised above.[19]
The most recent report publicly available remains the CPT report published in March 2021 following its visit to Malta in September 2020. The CPT reported a catastrophic situation, it found an immigration system that was “struggling to cope: a system that purely “contained” migrants who had essentially been forgotten, within poor conditions of detention and regimes which verged on institutional mass neglect by the authorities.” The CPT urged the Maltese authorities to “change their approach towards immigration detention and to ensure that migrants deprived of their liberty are treated with both dignity and humanity.”[20] The CPT visited Malta in 2023 but, at the time of writing, the visit report was not yet published.
In January 2022, the Government of Malta provided the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe with information on initiatives taken within the framework of the execution of the judgement of Feilazoo v. Malta.[21] The Government submitted that refurbishment works in the block where the applicant was held as well as in the other two blocks of the centre were under way with improved sanitary conditions. It should be noted that, at the time of these refurbishments, AD was being detained in China House and Safi Barracks.
The Government further reported the launch of the Migrant Health Service within the Detention Service in 2021 and the creation of a new clinic, which resulted in a reduction of around 80% of referrals to local health centres and of around 85% to the Accident and Emergency Department at the national hospital. It further reported the introduction of a Close Monitoring Unit (CMU) in 2021 to provide separate accommodation for high-risk persons, for persons with specific medical conditions or for persons who require separate accommodation for their mental wellbeing.
The Government reported the introduction of a Welfare Officer in 2020 to maintain contact with persons held in detention centres, deal with any complaints or issues they may have, and focusing on providing support and assistance to detainees, objectives that have been met according to the Government.[22] However, in relation to 2023, NGOs visiting detention received several reports from applicants regarding the conduct of the Welfare Officer. According to the reports, the Officer was involved in incidents of harassment and threats in particular against applicants appealing negative age assessment decisions or challenging their detention orders. He was also mentioned in relation to applying undue pressure on applicants to apply for voluntary return procedures, in a context where detained applicants were having extremely limited access to UNHCR and NGOs and therefore receiving limited independent information and advice regarding their cases. NGOs welcomed that in 2024, the Welfare Officer adopted a more cooperative and supportive stance vis-á-vis detained persons, especially vulnerable people. Noted a change in conduct in 2024.
A complaints system was reportedly put in place from 2021, and complaint forms and envelopes were disseminated in every compound.
Furthermore, Government also report carrying out refurbishment works in various parts of the detention centres yet, due to lack of access to these parts of the centres, these statements are impossible to verify. According to the Maltese Government, works were carried out in Safi as follows:
- Block A Zone 4, Total Renovation
- Block A Zone 5, Total Renovation
- Block A Zone 2, Total Renovation
- Block A Close Monitoring Unit, Total Renovation
- Block B House 1, Facelift
- Block B House 2, Total Renovation
- Block C Zone 1, New Building
- Block D Zone A, Facelift + New Ablutions
- Block D Zone B, Facelift
- Block D Zone C, Facelift + New Ablutions
- Block F Zones 3 & 6, New Building
New meeting facilities were built. These have been equipped with an open phone line system for lawyers, NGO representatives, interpreters, family members and other visitors.[23]
In September 2022, the Committee of Ministers of the European Council took the Government’s observations under consideration.[24] It noted that the authorities have taken a number of measures to improve the material conditions of detention at the Safi Detention Centre “which was, in 2021, the only official, closed detention centre for migrants in use in Malta”. However, the Committee observed that “in order to allow the Committee an overall assessment on whether these measures are sufficient to remedy all the different aspects of the inadequate conditions of detention exposed in the Court’s judgment, more detailed and extensive information is needed. In particular, as the shortcomings found by the Court are also supported by the recent report of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) in its findings during its 2020 visit”.
The Committee of Minister further invited the Maltese authorities “to inform the Committee whether other centres than Safi are in practice used as detention centres or intended for such use, for example, Hermes Block (Lyster Barracks) (which, according to publicly available data, was closed for renovation), China House in Ħal Far or the Marsa Initial Reception Centre (in which according to the CPT migrants can be de facto deprived of their liberty during lengthy medical clearances).”
In May 2022, Politico published a series of pictures and testimonies of former detainees who had been held in the Maltese detention centres in 2020. The pictures and testimonies confirm the conclusions of the CPT with specific references to some of its observations.[25]
In July 2022, aditus foundation released a series of testimonies from detainees who had been held for 18 to 25 months in both China House and Safi between December 2019 and April 2022. The testimonies confirmed the living conditions had not improved sufficiently since the CPT’s visit.[26]
aditus foundation and JRS gathered further testimonies of minor applicants who were detained between November 2021 and June 2022 within the context of proceedings before the ECtHR[27] and the Civil Court of Malta (First Hall),[28] all confirming that the situation has not improved sufficiently. One of the applicants claims he was detained in complete isolation for 147 days in a container in the so-called CMU unit due to being diagnosed with tuberculosis.
NGOs noted recent positive improvements in some blocks of Safi which appear to have been refurbished but are unable to comment on the quality of the improvement since they have no access to the areas and the government has so far refused to provide any information which would indicate that the living conditions have significantly improved since Feilazoo v. Malta. NGOs therefore consider that the conditions of detention as reported by CPT are still relevant for the most part.
Additionally, NGOs reported that there is no dedicated space for minors in China House, one zone being dedicated to them in the Safi Detention Centre, offering the same living conditions as the other blocks.
In May 2023 the Public Interest Litigation Network, representing a child, filed a case against the authorities alleging a violation of the right to life when the child’s father died in detention in 2012. Mamadou Kamara died in 2021 whilst in DS and AFM custody, whilst in the back of a DS van “after being repeatedly kicked in the groin.” Following the incident, an independent inquiry established that the AFM had used excessive force.[29]
Health care in detention
The creation of the Primary Health Care Migrant Health Service in 2021 and a new clinic, operating in Safi Detention Centre, saw some positive improvements in the provision of health care to detained persons. This also includes a more organised approach to medical files, documentation and medical handover following release.
In its communication to the Council of Europe in relation to the execution of Feilazoo v. Malta, the Government reported the creation of the Migrant Health Service resulted in a drastic improvement in the healthcare that was being provided to all persons residing in Detention Centres. According to the Government, the launch of such service had resulted in a reduction of around 80% of referrals to local health centres and of around 85% to the Accident and Emergency Department at the national hospital.
According to the Government, specialist clinics are also being held in the main clinic. Ophthalmic, Infectious Disease, Dermatology and Sexual Health Specialists are doing in-house clinics, which has resulted in enhanced screening and treatment of the persons residing in Detention Centres.
NGOs reported that in 2023, asylum-seekers appeared to be systematically screened upon arrival and referred to the appropriate services as part of a generic triage conducted upon disembarkation.
NGOs observed that while asylum-seekers may have been screened, little to no information is provided to them in relation to the support that is to be provided, reportedly due to a lack of interpreters available to nurses and doctors both at the Migrant Health Service and the mainstream health services offered at Mater Dei Hospital (MDH).
NGOs reported that some applicants reported that their treatment was stopped for no apparent reason and resumed following their intervention. Numerous applicants suffering from serious conditions reported that they are just given paracetamol when they complain of their conditions.
Third parties, including NGOs, can refer cases to the Migrant Health Service by email and feedback is usually provided when requested. However, the feedback provided is only factual and the Migrant Health Service does not provide their views on the vulnerability of the detainees and whether detention is considered to be harmful in their case. Furthermore, access to medical files being subject to the approval of the Head of DS, NGOs reported that their requests are generally ignored or granted several months after.
NGOs reported that whilst detainees’ suffering from physical conditions are generally referred for treatment, albeit with considerable delays during which they remain in detention, the screening of mental health problems remains an issue, with many detainees falling through gaps, until they attempt suicide and are referred to Mount Carmel Hospital (MCH).
According to Government figures, in 2023 five persons were referred from detention to mental health institutions. [30] Whereas this figure, lower than the 93 referrals in 2020, may be interpreted as a positive sign reflecting improvements in the detention centres, it is also reflective of the overall lower number of persons reaching Malta and the new approach towards attempting to provide specialised health services within the detention centres themselves.
In January 2021, a nurses’ union claimed that detainees were “purposely self-harming to get themselves transferred out of detention centres” and asked for the hospital to refuse admissions of such people.[31] Such a statement shocked NGOs due to its lack of sensitivity. They explained that their experience in detention confirmed the severe psychological harm caused by prolonged detention in undignified conditions. The NGOs stated that self-harm and suicide attempts were not abuses of the system but the “extremely worrying effects of a policy that entirely dehumanises people”. They stressed the need for all people to receive appropriate treatment for their mental health conditions without discrimination.[32]
Use of excessive force by the authorities
The use of excessive force and other questionable forms of punishment remains an issue primarily in contexts such as protests or escapes from detention, when force is used in an attempt to assert control or, at times, to discipline detainees, as is evident from the protests in 2019 and 2020. No information is available as to the situation in this regard in relation to 2022 and 2023.
In January 2020, detainees started a protest which led to the intervention of the police who arrested 19 people who were believed to have planned it.[33] Only a few days after the riot at Safi’s detention centre, twenty-two migrants were convicted to a nine-month prison sentence for having “insulted and threatened public officials, violently resisting arrest and slightly injuring five detention officers”. They were also accused of “taking part in a rioting mob and failing to disperse when ordered to, conspiracy to commit a crime, voluntary damage, disturbing the peace, disobeying lawful orders, threatening public officers and throwing stones at private property”.[34]
NGOs reacted in a press statement on the “shameful treatment of arrested migrants” by the Malta Police Force. NGOs exposed the way migrants were brought to Court, tied together in pairs and displayed to the general public, contrary to standard practice. They qualified this behaviour as inhumane treatment and prejudicial to the principle of presumption of innocence. Moreover, they emphasised that minors were among the accused and should therefore have been awarded specific protections throughout criminal proceedings.[35]
In February 2021, five young migrants were sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to participating in a riot at the Safi detention centre which occurred in September 2020. Two were sentenced to 30 months’ imprisonment while the other three, minors at the time, received an 18-month sentence.[36]
In September 2020, five migrants tried to escape Safi during a riot. A security guard then shot at one of the migrants who sustained light injuries. The escaping migrants were later caught and taken to Court together with 27 other detainees accused of causing damages. The Police stated that seven officers were injured during the riot. A spokesperson for the Home Affairs Ministry stated that guards are not allowed to carry firearms in closed centres.[37]
In the CPT report, the Committee reported having received several allegations of excessive use of force by Detention Service staff and private security staff following riots. According to migrants reporting to the CPT, staff purposely shook the fence while some detainees were climbing it, causing them to fall to the ground where they were subjected to baton blows. The CPT also reported the unwarranted use of pepper spray by custodial staff against detained migrants.
On 2 September 2020, a dramatic incident happened at Lyster Detention Centre where an asylum-seeker died after he fell while trying to escape. The individual fell at 5am and received assistance by nurses on site but was only transferred to hospital hours later where he was certified dead at 11am. An inquiry is, as far as known, still on going.[38] The CPT investigated said incident and “cannot reassure itself that staff, including health-care staff, had reacted sufficiently promptly when crucial help was needed to attempt to save this young man’s life from the effects of suspected internal bleeding over a period of at least three hours”.[39] The Magisterial inquiry remained open throughout 2022 and 2023.
It was also reported in the media that migrants in detention might have been mistreated and/or tortured. EUAA confirmed this in January 2021, having received several reports from migrants detained at Lyster and Safi detention centre, particularly mentioning physical torture, beatings, solitary confinement, denial or delay of medical care, and having been subjected to electrocution. Addressing the issue, EUAA stated that the Agency is taking such allegations very seriously and immediately brought them to the attention of the responsible Maltese authorities. It added that such issues are raised with the national authorities on several occasions.[40]
It was also reported anonymously by a source within the European agency, that its personnel often received reports of systematic abuse and violence, and that the agency noticed a high number of referrals to the psychiatric hospital because of frequent attempted suicide.[41]
UNHCR Malta also indicated that the Agency received reports of some physical and verbal abuse against detained asylum-seekers as well as suicide attempts in closed centres.[42]
In reply to these allegations, the Home Affairs Ministry stated that “no form of physical abuse is tolerated inside the detention centres, including scuffles between the detainees themselves. Detention Services officials are requested to report on each and every incident arising inside the centres. There have not been reports of torture and such instances would be referred to the police immediately”. He admitted that “there have been instances where migrants had to be referred to a psychiatrist, however, only few of such cases were confirmed to be mental-health illnesses. In such cases, the migrants are provided the necessary care by Mount Carmel Hospital”.[43]
No such incidents were reported in 2023, yet NGOs received reports from detained persons that they or their co-nationals had been placed in isolation containers in Safi Barracks. The location or basis for this isolation are not clear, yet aditus confirmed difficulties when trying to reach their clients who were in isolation either because they had no idea of their whereabouts or because they had no means of communicating with them.
[1] Ministry for Home Affairs and National Security, Strategy for the Reception of Asylum-seekers and Irregular Immigrants, 2015, available at https://goo.gl/FFz7qJ
[2] Regulation 6A of the Reception Regulations, Subsidiary Legislation 420.06 of the Laws of Malta.
[3] For more information see Ministry for Home Affairs, Detention services, available at: http://bit.ly/1M7HMkS.
[4] Regulation 10 of the Detention Regulations, Subsidiary Legislation 217. 19 of the Laws of Malta.
[5] Regulation 17 of the Detention Regulations, Subsidiary Legislation 217. 19 of the Laws of Malta.
[6] Regulation 11 of the Detention Regulations, Subsidiary Legislation 217. 19 of the Laws of Malta.
[7] Regulation 12 of the Detention Regulations, Subsidiary Legislation 217. 19 of the Laws of Malta.
[8] Regulation 16 of the Detention Regulations, Subsidiary Legislation 217. 19 of the Laws of Malta.
[9] Regulation 13 of the Detention Regulations, Subsidiary Legislation 217. 19 of the Laws of Malta.
[10] Regulation 19 of the Detention Regulations, Subsidiary Legislation 217. 19 of the Laws of Malta.
[11] Regulation 20 of the Detention Regulations, Subsidiary Legislation 217. 19 of the Laws of Malta.
[12] Regulations 22 and 23 of the Detention Regulations, Subsidiary Legislation 217. 19 of the Laws of Malta.
[13] Regulations 24, 25 and 27 of the Detention Regulations, Subsidiary Legislation 217. 19 of the Laws of Malta.
[14] Regulation 34 of the Detention Regulations, Subsidiary Legislation 217. 19 of the Laws of Malta.
[15] Regulations 38 and 39 of the Detention Regulations, Subsidiary Legislation 217.19 of the Laws of Malta.
[16] Monitoring Board for Detained Persons Regulations, Subsidiary Legislation 217.08 of the Laws of Malta.
[17] The Monitoring Board for Detained Persons, Annual Report 2023, available at: https://tinyurl.com/r5ux6ysr.
[18] ECtHR, Feilazoo v. Malta, Application No. 6865/19, Judgment 11 March 2021.
[19] ECtHR, A.D. v. Malta, no 12427/22, 17 January 2024, available at: https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-228153.
[20] CPT, Report to the Maltese Government on the visit to Malta carried out by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment from 17 to 22 September 2020, March 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3mPtelf.
[21] Council of Europe, Communication from Malta concerning the case of Feilazoo v. Malta (Application No. 6865/19), 18 January 2022, available at https://bit.ly/3SSjaI0
[22] Information provided by Home Affairs Ministry in January 2024.
[23] Ministry for Home Affairs, Security, Reforms and Equality, Feedback on the 2022 AIDA Country Report on Malta, shared with ECRE in January 2024.
[24] Council of Europe, 1443rd meeting, 20-22 September 2022 (DH), available at https://bit.ly/3kWjb17
[25] Politico, In pictures: Inside Malta’s crowded migrant detention centres, 18 May 2022, available at: https://tinyurl.com/4ya85r9j.
[26] aditus foundation, Detained Narratives, July 2022, available at https://bit.ly/3ygs3BK
[27] ECtHR, A.D. v. Malta, no 12427/22 (Communicated Case), 24 May 2022, available at https://bit.ly/3yfqjc6
[28] Civil Court (First Hall), Ayoubah Fona vs. L-Avukat tal-Istat, 375/2022
[29] The Shift, Claim filed against the Maltese State over detained migrant’s brutal death, 22 May 2023, at: https://bit.ly/3wH3Lnz.
[30] Ministry for Home Affairs, Security, Reforms and Equality, Feedback on the 2022 AIDA Country Report on Malta, shared with ECRE in January 2024.
[31] Times of Malta, Union claims migrants are “purposely self-harming” to enter Mount Carmel, 29 January 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3scNO0Q.
[32] aditus foundation, Press statement from the Malta Refugee Council, network of Maltese NGOs working for the promotion of the fundamental human rights of persons in forced migration, 29 January 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3tOrj2r.
[33] Lovin Malta, 19 People Arrested in Late Night Protest At Ħal Safi Detention Centre, 7 January 2020, available at: https://bit.ly/3rjYYjf.
[34] The Independent, Safi detention centre, available at: https://bit.ly/2Jes67C.
[35] Press Statement available at: https://bit.ly/2UfVpx7.
[36] Lovin Malta, Five Migrants Sentenced to Jail for Rioting At Safi Detention Centre, 19 February 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/2QwVvkv.
[37] Malta Today, Safi detention centre riot: Private security guard shot migrant who tried to escape, 18 September 2020, available at: https://bit.ly/3c7fNtc.
[38] Times of Malta, Man dies after trying to escape migrant detention centre, 2 September 2020, available at: https://bit.ly/31av9a5.
[39] CPT, Report to the Maltese Government on the visit to Malta carried out by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment from 17 to 22 September 2020, March 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3mPtelf.
[40] The Times of Malta, Detained migrants have reported being tortured in Malta, 31 January 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/318lX64.
[41] Ibid.
[42] The Times of Malta, Migrant detention numbers shrink, fears about child detainees remain, 7 February 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3vPfwD4.
[43] The Times of Malta, Detained migrants have reported being tortured in Malta, 31 January 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3f5rZMX.