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Eritreans in Malta deserve Humane Treatment
London, 8 Oct 2003
Eritreans in Malta deserve Humane Treatment EHDR-UK calls upon the government of Malta to set aside politics and take care of the Eritrean asylum seekers in detention camps. Malta, must be prepared to play its part in alleviating this discernible human misery.
How the Eritrean asylum seekers ended up in Malta is beside the point. They are desperate people escaping from a desperate situation as well as an abusive environment. They need help and protection. The Maltese government should treat them with the respect and dignity they are guaranteed by the UN Refugee Convention of 1951.
The most worrying aspect of this saga is to see Malta violating Article 33 of the Convention, which says, ‘no contracting state shall expel or return a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened’. It is to be remembered that Malta deported 223 Eritreans in 2002 back to danger. The deportees were put in a makeshift detention centre in a village called ‘adi abieto’. Later they were scattered in small islands located in the Red Sea. No one knows as to the fate of those deported since then.
If asylum seekers are sent straight back to danger - or are prevented from leaving their countries in the first place - then all the other measures designed to protect and assist them count for nothing. Maltese officials ignored this fact when they deported the Eritrean asylum seekers last year and today, ignoring international law, they continue to go through the same path.
The Eritreans in Malta have been detained for nearly two years while their asylum cases are still being investigated. They are not economic migrants but they are genuine asylum seekers. They fled a dictatorial regime. The world community has turned its back on Eritrea because of its poor performance in human and democratic rights. In fact, several international institutions, such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and more, have issued various statements with regards to the true nature of the Eritrean government. Therefore the case of the Eritrean asylum-seekers does not warrant harsh treatment and indefinite detention. For the last nineteen months, the detainees spent most of their time in the same room, with little to do. They are not permitted outside, and no one does anything to ease the pain and the stresses of these Eritreans in Maltese detention camps.
To protest their harsh conditions the asylum-seekers went on hunger strike which lasted for ten days. The hunger strike, which involved about 80 adults, came to an end on 7 Oct 2003, after the intervention of the Peace Lab's Fr Dionysius Mintoff, who visited them at the barracks and persuaded them to call off the strike.
On the contrary, the Home Affairs Minister, Dr Tonio Borg, lashed out at the asylum seekers for seeking justice, compassion and his attention by saying ‘anyone doing harm to himself must bear the consequences of his own decisions’.
EHDR-UK praises the support and intervention provided by the Peace Lab whose leaders stated they are in touch with the Council of Europe's office of the Commissioner for Human Rights. They have asked Commissioner to inspect the case regarding the conditions and status of the Eritrean asylum seekers.
EHDR-UK will continue to campaign for the release of the Eritrean asylum-seekers in Malta.
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