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Ħal Far Open Centre Residents Should Be Housed At Hotels And Other Accommodations To Combat Overcrowding, MP Proposes

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Migrants who live at the overcrowded Ħal Far open centre should be temporarily housed at hotels to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Nationalist MP Beppe Fenech Adami has proposed.

“The biggest headache would be if there’s an outbreak of the virus in an area where a lot of people are concentrated,” Fenech Adami said on of Lovin Malta’s talk show #CovidCalls yesterday.

“The government hasn’t taken enough measures to reduce overcrowding at the open centre and when 1000 people are gathered together in the same container, it’s a powder keg waiting to explode.”

On Monday, the Ħal Far open centre was placed under quarantine for two weeks after eight residents tested positive for COVID-19. While the patients have been segregated from the rest of the community, footage published by Lovin Malta shows that the open centre remains overcrowded, with large groups of people still sharing communal bathrooms, dormitories, and public spaces.

Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri said that the government doesn’t have any available vacant properties to house these people, throwing in a political jibe that “the only empty place I knows of is the Nationalist Party’s headquarters”.

However, Fenech Adami urged the government to rent out hotel rooms, as well as properties from the Church, to temporarily house these people, a move to combat overcrowding recently implemented by countries such as France and Greece.

“The government should seek new places, even by forking out money if necessary, to see if the private sector is interested in assisting.”

“The Church and other institutions, if helped financially and logistically, could possibly be in a position to offer alternative sites. The minister should learn from what’s happening abroad.”

“This is a state of emergency, we’re in a crisis and the government should take all possible measures to reduce the spread of the virus, and one of the best ways is to reduce overcrowding.”

Moreover, he said Malta should also seek to reduce overcrowding at the prison by having prisoners approaching the end of their sentence see out the rest of their prison term under house arrest.

“This is a crisis situation and we have to be pro-active. Addressing prisons by contemplating the complete lockdown of prisons and prison staff is the recipe for another complete disaster.”

READ NEXT: 130 Correctional Officers Will Live And Work At Kordin Prison On A Weekly Rotation To Contain Spread Of COVID-19

Tim is interested in the rapid evolution of human society and is passionate about justice, human rights and cutting-edge political debates. You can follow him on Instagram or Twitter/X at @timdiacono or reach out to him at [email protected]

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