Detention policy: a tool for politicians to appear in control

The death of Mamadou Kamara (aka Zoto) has once again cast a spotlight on Malta's controversial policy of mandatory detention for all irregular migrants upon arrival.

The 32-year-old Malian asylum seeker died from injuries sustained in what appears to have been a beating received in the back of an AFM van. He had just been re-apprehended following his escape from the Safi detention centre three years earlier. Three AFM officers have since been charged with offences related to his death, including homicide.

But while human rights activists have expressed horror and shock at the incident, others have come out in full defence of Malta's detention system: including the man who was until very recently politically responsible for immigration, former home affairs minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici.

Writing in today's edition of Illum, Mifsud Bonnici - who resigned following loss of a confidence of the House on 30 May - described mandatory policy as "odious, but necessary."

"I retained the detention policy as minister in the interest of the people and in [the migrants'] own interest," he told our sister newspaper. "In the country's interest, because we must take care to protect the people..."

But the view that migrants represent a direct threat to public safety is rejected outright by all NGOs involved in detention. Neil Falzon of the NGO aditus - who was commenting independently of Mifsud Bonnici's statement - argues that detention does nothing to enhance public safety at all.

"Malta's detention policy, and the way it is implemented, is in clear violation of the European Convention on Human Rights and of other international human rights instruments," he told MaltaToday shortly after Zoto's death was made public. "I won't go into too many legal arguments, but the essence of the matter is that the right to personal liberty is the rule and detention the exception to be only resorted to under very specific circumstances that are clearly prescribed in international and regional instruments.  None of the arguments presented by the government and also by the opposition fall within these specific circumstances."

As for the public safety argument, Falzon reasons that this is defeated by a glance at the basic facts. "There is the idea that Malta needs to ensure national security and not let asylum-seekers run loose in the streets... but everyone is released at some point, with little or nothing gained in the interim period except the extremely detrimental effects on the persons' minds and bodies."

Echoing views aired separately by JRS director Katrine Camilleri, Falzon reiterates that detention serves more of a political than a practical purpose.

"Detention, ultimately, is the tool used by politicians to appear to be in control, to appear to adopt a firm hand against 'unwanted guests'. It serves no purpose at all but to please the masses of voters who have been repeatedly and consistently told that migration is to be feared."