Migrants at the Ħal Safi detention centre have hung a banner saying ‘Freedom’ on the barbed wire fencing to protest their conditions.

Several police officers, as well as Civil Protection Department officials and medics, were called in to the detention centre this morning to control the protest, the second at the detention centre this month. According to several reports, the detained migrants had started a fire and were seen banging on the gates, shouting ‘Freedom’.

The majority of the migrants are believed to be among the 365 people who were brought to Malta recently after spending some two weeks aboard the Ocean Viking search and rescue vessel. They are being kept in the detention centre ahead of a planned relocation to other EU member states.

A group of migrant rights NGOs last week warned that the likely reason migrants are being kept in detention is because there isn’t enough space at the open centres.

“While we fully appreciate the strain that the large number of arrivals has placed on Malta’s reception system, resource constraints, no matter how severe, can and should never be used to justify deprivation of liberty,” they said.

Cover photo: One News; In circle: TVM

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