To riots it came in the night on today in a refugee institution on Malta. Five cars and a container were lit. The Maltese police who intervened were pelted by migrants with stones and other objects. Even a police car was damaged, reported „The Times of Malta“.
Protests against inhuman conditions
For months, refugees in closed facilities for persons without a residence permit in Malta have been demonstrating against inhuman living conditions and long waiting periods until asylum applications are examined. The revolt at the Hal Far Reception Center broke out following the refusal of a group of people to be transferred to an open detention center, the paper said.
Overcrowded reception center
Malta’s detention centers are overcrowded after several hundred refugees have reached the island in recent months. Many of them are to be transferred to other EU countries, but so far this has not happened.
Maria Pisani, director of the relief organization Integra, was not surprised by the revolt. „We have been worried about the situation in Hal Far for months,“ she said. Migrants and aid organizations have been complaining for a long time about the poor living conditions in the camps.
