Malta chastised again over migrant detention centres

Saturday May 7, 2016

A female migrant at Lyster Barracks in October 2013. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi

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Malta is once again in the European Court of Human Rights’ black book after it found that a Somali migrant had been subjected to degrading conditions while in detention.

Among other things, the court found that Sagal Abdi Mahamud was kept in a prison-like detention centre which she shared with some other 60 migrants and had no access to any recreational activities or proper meals. This, it said, amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment.

The court held that Malta should pay Ms Mahamud €12,000 in non-pecuniary damage and €2,500 to cover costs and expenses.

The European Court heard how Ms Mahamud entered Malta irregularly by boat in May 2012 and was eventually released from detention in September 2013.

She was detained in Hermes Block in Lyster Barracks, Ħal Far, which was so crowded that, at one point, there were not enough beds and people had to sleep on metal tables in the television room.

Ms Mahamud told the court that there was a lack of female staff and that male soldiers barged into her dormitory every morning while they were still asleep and uncovered them to ascertain their presence.

The court found that the living space did not go below the minimum acceptable standard of multi-occupancy accommodation and that the overcrowding was not so severe as to justify in itself a finding of a human rights violation.

Ms Mahamud complained that she had no access to any outdoor exercise for between eight and 12 weeks. The government, represented by Attorney General Peter Grech, admitted that access to the yard between April and July 2012 was limited for security reasons because of the significant number of escapes. However, the court found that this was not justified.

It said that access to outdoor exercise was imperative and that all detainees, even those confined to their cells as a punishment, have a right to at least one hour of exercise in the open air every day, regardless of how good the material conditions might be in their cells.

The yard in question, it noted, was too small and was secured on three sides by wire fencing topped with barbed wire and “left much to be desired given that it was the only outdoor access enjoyed by detainees for a limited time daily”.

“The court considers that the government’s argument is no justification, and the authorities should be in a position to provide safe exercise space irrespective of any fears of escape,” the court said.
It chastised the Maltese authorities for taking eight months to formally issue its decision that Ms Mahamud was vulnerable and had to be released.
“In view of the applicant’s vulnerability as a result of her health, and all the circumstances including no access to outdoor exercise for between eight and 12 weeks, the poor environment for outdoor exercise in the remaining period, the little privacy offered in the centre and the fact these conditions persisted for over 16 months, lead the court to conclude that the cumulative effect of the conditions complained of diminished the applicant’s human dignity and aroused in her feelings of anguish and inferiority capable of humiliating and debasing her and possibly breaking her physical or moral resistance,” the court ruled as it awarded Ms Mahamud €12,000 in compensation.

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