Update 2 | Inquiry board appointed to investigate Hal Far migrants' unrest

An inquiry board has been appointed to investigate and draw up a report of the incidents that occurred at Lyster Barracks in Hal Far last Tuesday.

The presence of four MPs on a fact-finding mission at the Hal Far migrant centre provoked a unrest by detained asylum seekers. Eyewitnesses said 18 detainees took part in the protest outside, but as much as 70 detainees were inside the barracks damaging furniture.

Chaired by development and policy implementation director-general Joseph St John, the board is tasked with establishing the sequence of events and to determine how the incident developed and the type of intervention that took place by the police and other security officials. The other board members are the deputy head of the Civil Protection Department John Agius and the assistant director of the prisons Kevin Borg. Nadia Mifsud is board secretary.

The ministry for home affairs and national security had also confirmed that rubber pellets were fired to the ground while police and members of the Armed Forces were called in to calm down the "protest."

The unrest subsequently saw seven asylum seekers handed a one-year jail term suspended for two years, after being convicted of being part of a riot, damaging government property and conspiring to commit an offence.

In the wake of the unrest, an inquiry board has now been appointed by the home affairs ministry over the way police quelled the unrest, after video footage showed police firing at protestors on a first floor of the detention centre.

In reaction, the Nationalist opposition said that the board is not composed of independent members, "but it's made up of persons who make part of the ministry they should be investigating."

This, Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi said, means that the inquiry "lacks the essential transparency and independence."

Azzopardi also pointed out that similar boards appointed by the previous administration were composed of persons who came from outside the civil service and government.

"If the home affairs minister is genuinely interested in holding a serious and transparent inquiry, he should ensure that all board members are independent," Azzopardi said. 

However, the ministry for home affairs rebutted the claims and insisted that the board members are "independent and transparent."

"Jason Azzopardi is once again mistaken because the inquest is not investigating the ministry but the way police quelled the unrest," it said.

The ministry had initially denied that rubber pellets had been used, but had later retracted its denial and confirmed that four rubber pellets were fired to the ground, so that the richochet repels the detainees. It however inisted that no migrants were shot at and nobody required hospitalisation from the police intervention.

"The board is being requested to confirm whether any migrants or security officials were injured and whether such injuries are critical. The board members are also responsible to submit their opinion on what could have led to the unrest and to make suggestions of how similar situations could be avoided in the future."

Together with Joseph St John, the other board members, namely Deputy Head of the Civil Protection Department John Agius and assistant director of the Hal Far detention centre Kevin Borg, have also been tasked to visit the centre and interview migrants, guards, police, agencies, organisations as well as journalists who could assist them.

The report has to be submitted to the minister within 15 days.