By Pearl Rimon
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe
VALLETA, Malta – Human Rights Watch (HRW) is calling for the government of Malta to stop their practice of detaining unaccompanied migrant children.
Malta has a policy of mandatory detention for migrants who arrive by sea, resulting in prolonged detention of unaccompanied children and other abuses of migrants’ rights.
“Malta’s automatic, indiscriminate, and blanket detention of migrants – including unaccompanied migrant children – is inhumane and unnecessary,” said Alice Farmer, researcher in the Children’s Rights Division at HRW. “It doesn’t deter migrants from coming to Malta and it violates international law.”
Asylum seekers can be detained for up to 12 months and migrants not seeking asylum can be detained for 18 months. Malta has a policy of mandatory detention for any “prohibited immigrant,” including anyone arriving without “right of entry.”
Malta routinely detains unaccompanied migrant children who are often fleeing violence in their home countries, like Somalia and Eritrea. The children undergo an age determination process, a lengthy procedure that often takes months. They are detained as long as they look older than 12 or 14, and are held until they determine their age.
The children are assessed and if they are deemed to be under 18 they are released into group homes. While children who arrive with their families are automatically moved to group homes.
HRW interviewed 88 migrant and asylum seekers between February and May of this year. The average detention time for age determination was 3.4 months. The Maltese government has detained children as young as 12 in adult facilities, according to the HRW report.
“Malta should treat migrants who claim to be under age 18 as children until proven otherwise, and never detain them,” said Alice Farmer. “The fact that unaccompanied children, who have made long and dangerous trips without their parents or other caregivers, are locked up until they can prove they are children, demonstrates the brutality of the detention policy.”
HRW urges the Maltese government to treat those who claim to be children as such pending the outcome of age determination proceedings, and not detain them while their ages are assessed, bring their detention policies in line with the standards of the Council of Europe, and to limit detention of migrants to exceptional circumstances.
The Maltese government maintains that detention protects migrants from abuse, exploitation and getting lost in the country.
For further information, please see:
DI-VE — Beyond Burden Sharing on Irregular Migrants – 19 July 2012
The Epoch Times — Malta: An Accidental Destination For Many Migrants – 19 July 2012
The Malta Independent– Human Rights Watch – ‘Stop detaining children’ –19 July 2012
