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Asylum applicants residing in open centres enjoy freedom of movement around the island(s). All persons living in an open centre are required to regularly confirm residence through signing in three times per week. These signing procedures also confirm eligibility for the per diem (see Forms and Levels of Material Reception Conditions) and to ensure the continued right to reside in the centre. Residents who are employed, and who, therefore, might be unable to sign three times a week, are not given the per diem for as long as they fail to sign.
The only restriction on freedom of movement envisaged in the law relate to public health risks, whereby the Superintendent for Public Health may issue an order restricting the free movement of any person. Since 2019, this was the basis for Malta’s health-based detention, a practice denounced by the ECtHR in A.D. v. Malta. As mentioned in the detention sections, throughout 2024 this detention period continued to be reduced. Nonetheless, newly-arrived asylum-seekers who are found to carry infectious diseases are issues with such an order for the duration of the necessary medical tests and medication.
Malta does not operate any dispersal scheme, since residence in open centres remains voluntary. Nonetheless, placement in a particular open centre generally implies a limited possibility to change centre, although such decisions could be taken on a case-by-case basis. Moreover, legislation foresees that transfers of applicants from one accommodation facility to another shall take place only when necessary, and applicants shall be provided with the possibility of informing their legal advisers of the transfer and of their new address.[1] Beyond individual situations, movement between centres is sometimes affected by space considerations. Asylum applicants might be moved from one centre to another in order to maintain security and order within particular centres.
Asylum applicants arriving irregularly by boat are automatically de facto detained under health grounds, until medically cleared by health authorities. In terms of the law, the Government considers this situation not to amount to detention but to a restriction on the freedom of movement necessary to safeguard public health (See Detention).
[1] Regulation 13 of the Reception Regulations, S.L. 420.06.