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

The migrants had filed a lawsuit after their detention exceeded the legal ten-week limit, arguing that they were being deprived of their personal freedom.

Assisted by lawyers from the NGOs aditus and the Jesuit Refugees Services, the migrants recounted how they had been rescued at sea and taken to Malta earlier this year. Upon their arrival, they were interrogated by police without an interpreter present and taken to the detention centre.

The migrants were then handed a document explaining that their movement had been restricted 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 informed of the test results.

And although they applied for asylum, regularising their stay in Malta, the migrants were held in handcuffs whenever they were taken to visit the health centre or the Office of the Refugee Commissioner.

Their lawyers argued that such public health measures seem to only apply for migrants rescued at sea, not for other migrants, tourists or people who visit high-risk countries. And although the law allows the authorities to extend the detention of migrants from four to ten weeks for the purpose of concluding health tests, these six migrants were never tested again, given any medical treatment, informed why they had been suspected of carrying a contagious disease in the first place, or even quarantined at the Safi Barracks.

Their lawyers argued that their extended detention was not due to public health concerns but “a migration management policy that is concerned with other considerations – considerations that, whilst potentially valid from a public policy perspective, do not constitute valid legal ground.”

The court ruled in favour of the migrants and ordered their immediate release from the detention centre.

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