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Ħal Safi Migrants Dismayed After Court Keeps Them In Jail For Freedom Protest

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The 21 migrants who launched a protest at the Ħal Safi detention centre have been denied bail and remanded in custody.

A Times of Malta report described a raucous in court once the migrants learned their fate, causing some commotion while also being lost in translation.

The migrants, aged between 18 and 38, displayed banners protesting their detention, even pleading with the country to send them back to their country.

They have been charged with causing a disturbance, disobeying orders and causing damage as a detention centre.

Issues at the detention centre are revolved around the long-term detention which they claim infringes upon their rights, calling on the EU to intervene.

Last week, the court of magistrates ruled that Malta broke the law by detaining six asylum seekers for ten weeks at the Safi detention centre.

The migrants, who were rescued at sea and taken to Malta earlier this year, said that they were informed upon their arrival that they would have to be detained on the grounds that there was a risk they were carrying a contagious disease.

However, although they underwent a screening of their chests at a health centre, they were never given any medical treatment, tested again, quarantined or even informed of the test results.

The court ruled in favour of the migrants’ argument that they were being deprived of their personal freedom and ordered their immediate release from the detention centre.

Julian is the former editor of Lovin Malta and has a particular interest in politics, the environment, social issues, and human interest stories.

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