Migrants and asylum seekers endure inhuman conditions in Malta
Asylum seekers and migrants who arrive in Malta are subjected to confinement in detention centres where appalling living conditions put their mental and physical health at risk. This month, MSF launches the report ‘Not Criminals’, to highlight the unacceptable and inhuman living conditions in the centres and renew its call for immediate improvements to living conditions and detention policies in Malta.
A medical consultation in the open centre for migrants and asylum seekers in Malta. March 2009
Photo by Elisa Finocchiaro/MSF
“I crossed the desert to escape the violence in Somalia and I reached Tripoli when my pregnancy was almost at the end. The day of my departure I bought a pair of brand new scissors, and I kept them carefully. I wanted to keep them clean. My daughter was born the first day on the boat. A man and a woman helped me to give birth: he grasped my arms; she cut the cord with the brand new scissors. We were 77 people on that boat, we could not even move as we were very squashed. The following days the sea was rough. The man and the woman held on to me, and I held on to my daughter tightly, I was afraid she would fall in the sea. For the next four days we suffered from a lack of food and water, my daughter too because my breast was dry from fear and hunger.” - Woman from Somalia
Click the image above to download MSF's Not Criminals report, exposing appalling conditions in Maltese detention centres.
Over the past several years migrants and asylum seekers have left the Libyan coast for Malta in search of refuge and/or better living conditions. The journey on cramped boats is harsh. For days, the men, women and children on board are unable to move. They have limited food and water and are exposed to sun and rain. Those who survive the journey to Malta are met with detention and inhuman treatment.
The Maltese policy of systematic detention aims to deter people from entering the country irregularly. On arrival in Malta irregular migrants and asylum seekers are forced to stay in overcrowded detention centres for as long as 18 months. But despite new policies to contain arrivals and stricter border controls at the European Union’s southern frontier the number of people landing in Malta increased in 2008, with 2,704 new arrivals reported. In 2009, this trend continues. Most people head to Malta to escape civil war, persecution and economic or environmental problems – reasons that are more decisive than the deterrent effect of detention on arrival.
The influx of new arrivals is causing further deterioration of already inhuman living conditions for detainees. Overcrowding, appalling hygiene and inadequate shelter in the centres expose detainees to the risk of skin and respiratory infections. Access to healthcare is poor, and the detainees’ health suffers as a consequence. Detainees with infectious diseases are held in the same areas as healthy people, contributing to the spread of epidemics. Patients have to wait days, sometimes weeks, before they receive the medication prescribed during consultations. Vulnerable people – pregnant women, children and sick people – are all kept in detention centres and are only eligible for release once a decision is taken based on their individual case.
Living conditions harm detainees’ health
“In October it started getting cold. My mother, my aunt and I were sleeping on two mattresses, but in our room it was too cold because of the broken windows. I decided to go and sleep with the other two people from Ethiopia: their room was very small and had no windows, so it was not too cold. But this room was inside the toilets area, and to get there I had to walk across the floor which was always covered in water. And it always stank. At the end of October I became very sick, I had a serious infection in my lungs. They brought me to the hospital where they kept me for more than ten days. When I recovered, I cried because I did not want to go back to prison.” - Boy from Ethiopia who spent 10 weeks in detention.
Between August 2008 and February 2009, MSF provided healthcare in three detention centres in Malta: Safi, Lyster Barracks and Ta’kandja. But it soon became clear that the impact of this healthcare assistance was limited by the detention centre living conditions. 17% of the health conditions diagnosed by MSF medical staff during consultations with patients were respiratory problems linked to exposure to cold and lack of treatment for infections. Skin infections reflected overcrowding and poor hygiene in the centres.
“Working as a doctor in an environment like this is frustrating and at times it defies logic. How can we treat a patient with a chest infection and send him back to sleep on a damp mattress on the floor near a broken window in winter? How can we advise a hypertensive patient to control their diet and exercise if he or she is kept in overcrowded cells with limited access to outside space? Patients often required repeated consultations for the same complaints, as symptoms persisted due to the environment where they were living”, said Philippa Farrugia, MSF medical doctor in Malta.
On several occasions, MSF has drawn the attention of the Maltese authorities to the appalling living conditions in the detention centres and pressured them to implement changes. However, despite some initiatives to improve reception conditions, the centres are still far from meeting the European Commission Directive on minimum standards for the reception of asylum seekers. In March, MSF suspended its activities inside detention centres and publicly denounced the living conditions and associated risks to which migrants and asylum seekers were exposed. In its report ‘Not Criminals’, MSF uncovers the unacceptable conditions of detention and its impact on the physical and mental health of the migrants and asylum seekers in Malta. Click here to read or download the full report.
-----------------------------------------------------------
MSF started working in Malta in August 2008. Between August 2008 and February 2009, MSF provided 3,192 medical consultations to almost 2,000 patients in three detention centres. Between December 2008 and February 2009, MSF conducted 266 individual psychological sessions and held 30 group sessions on health promotion. Despite the suspension of its activities in the detention centres, MSF continues to provide healthcare to migrants and asylum seekers living in open centres, where detainees are transferred once their asylum application is processed or upon completion of 18 months in detention.