Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/433160
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 14 DECEMBER 2014 5 MATTHEW VELLA NEW Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela has vowed to meet NGOs to discuss migration issues and detention policy as early as next Tuesday, after the government released for the first time ever a report by judge Geoffrey Valenzia into the death of Malian migrant Mamadou Kamara in 2012. In comments to MaltaToday, the new minister – who succeeds Manuel Mallia – said he was raring to meet NGOs who on Friday ex- pressed their disgust at the way the Valenzia report had been gathering dust with no visible action being taken on it. "I want to meet the NGOs alto- gether. I'd be happy to meet them at the ministry and listen to them. It's my first week so I am in listen- ing mode and want to seek constant dialogue with them. "We will be following up on the Valenza report, but I need more time to consult with ministry of- ficials. I have my own views on migration, which is why I want to speak to NGOs about more than just detention." A government spokesperson also told MaltaToday that with the aver- age time of the asylum determina- tion process having gone down to as much as three months, and the role of Italy's Mare Nostrum opera- tion in easing the migration burden, the Hal Far detention centre was now being refurbished. "Having ap- pointed more than one refugee ap- peals board gave us the time to clear more asylum decisions and their appeals," the spokesperson said The NGOs aditus Foundation, Integra Foundation, Jesuit Refu- gee Service (Malta), KOPIN, Malta Emigrants' Commission, Migrants' Network for Equality, Organisation for Friendship in Diversity, and SOS Malta, said that the Valenzia Report into the death of Mamadou Kamara was "a scathing commen- tary on the way Malta has freely decided to treat men, women and children who are running for their lives." They also said that the change in administration in 2013 brought a review process on detention and any dialogue with civil society to a halt. "Despite our repeated calls to be invited to discuss Malta's deten- tion regime, the process was wholly ignored, its findings shelved and our concerns disregarded. We hope that the publication of this report is made with the intention of im- plementing its comprehensive and insightful recommendations." They describe the Valenzia report as one of the most constructive and thorough reports to date, joining so many other reports in "unequivo- cally condemning a policy that seeks to deprive migrants of their very humanity by locking them away out of sight, out of scrutiny and out of human rights protection." "Yet we are not shocked," the NGOs said. "We are not shocked to read of sexual relations between a small number of Detention Services personnel and detained women. We are not shocked because we have been witnessing such incidents for several years. We stress that the majority of Detention Services per- sonnel do their utmost in what is in fact a very difficult working envi- ronment, as also underlined by the Report." They said they were appalled at the fact that the report had been gathering dust since December 2012 while the violations remained unchallenged, and its recommenda- tions unheeded – a key accusation made by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, who tabled the report in parliament, after it was revealed that former home affairs minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici did not heed former Detention Services head Lt Col Brian Gatt's call to discipline DS officers. Gatt told Valenzia that the DSU was staffed by "the worst of the worst… soldiers refused by the army," adding that soldiers were assigned to work at Detention Serv- ices as a sort of punishment. "I had a sergeant in Hal Far who used to prey on migrant women, entering their rooms during the night and taking a woman back to his office with him. Even condoms were found in the room." This sergeant was never suspend- ed but simply transferred to anoth- er section. Four years later he was returned to the DS. Mamadou Kamara, the inquiry revealed, died from a heart attack caused by severe pain as a result of blunt trauma: according to forensic expert Mario Scerri, Kamara was kicked in the groin. He had been living illegally in Malta and was shopped to the au- thorities while seeking treatment at the Floriana polyclinic. When he escaped his captors and later recap- tured, he was placed in a steel cage at the back of a detention centre van where he was brutally beaten, suffered a heart attack and died. MIRIAM DALLI THE inquiry into the death of 32- year-old Mamadou Kamara flagged not only the disturbing conditions asylum seekers were forced to live in, but also established that detention services officers were indeed "the worst of the worst". Lieutenant Colonel Brian Gatt – former head of the detention serv- ices – told inquiring judge Geoffrey Valenzia that the army used to send its rejects: officers facing criminal charges, with usury problems and who preyed on vulnerable migrant women during the night. Whenever he required personnel, the request would have to go through both government and ministry chan- nels for "the necessary filtration" – to a central agency, the Office of the Prime Minister and also the Finance Ministry. It was finally the ministry that decided the number of officers to be deployed for Detention Serv- ices according to the "exigencies" of the ministry, the army and the police force. The management of detention cen- tres fell directly under the responsi- bility of the ministry for home af- fairs, not the Armed Forces. But in the Valenzia inquiry, former home affairs minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici distanced himself from the poor quality of detention services officers. "There are no first and second class soldiers. Having joined the ar- my, all soldiers remain soldiers. Any soldiers which the army deems as inadequate should be removed. But it is the AFM's problem whether it's keeping good soldiers or not," he is quoted as saying. "Are we accepting people in the army or the police who, when they lose it, they kill people?" He claimed that the excessive force shown by officers had nothing to do with training: "Why should I train someone in the army or the police force not to kill anyone? Do you require any special training to stop you from hitting someone? You don't need special training." Arguing that it hadn't been the first time that migrants had escaped from detention centres only to be recaptured, Mifsud Bonnici said one should not be under the impression that all officers were bad people. "The cardinal point is how officers react when they are attacked. This is not the first case of aggression they had. How they react depends on them […] But it is not the system's fault. Is it the system's fault that I hit someone because he attacked me? Is it the system's fault? The detention system's fault?" Human rights NGOs, including aditus and the UNHCR. Both repre- sentatives spoke of the tension that existed in the detention centres be- tween the immigrants and the staff. "It is the system that creates prob- lems. I think what happened a few weeks ago is the result of a number of problems and accumulation of years and years of stress on the sys- tem which collapsed," Neil Falzon, of aditus, told Valenzia. Fr Alfred Vella, of the Church Emigrants' Commission, compared closed detention services to a cyl- inder gas being pressed and which could "explode at any minute". Jesuit Refugee Service director Katrine Camilleri told Valenzia that, from the officers' point of view, they used to feel powerless because they didn't have the adequate means to respond. "[…]You put me in a position to do a task which is quite impos- sible. For example, I am expected to guard a facility and stop people escaping from a place which is not secure and someone escapes and you punish me. Then obviously if somebody escapes it becomes a very personal issue. He escaped in my shift and I'll get into trouble… Here you have people who have a multi function…. "They are not just guards. They are guards plus, plus, plus and plus. So that fact, that the roles are not clear and the boundaries are blurred and they have no procedures, makes their jobs infinitely more difficult. This leads to a situation where there is a lot of arbitrariness. If there are no clear rules I would react to things how I think. I will respond to what my head tells me, not necessarily the best way." News Carmelo Abela wants to meet NGOs over Kamara report Mifsud Bonnici distanced himself from poor quality of detention officers Mamadou Kamara Former home affairs minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici