MEPs to visit detention centres

A European Parliament delegation will visit Malta next week to examine the conditions in which immigrants are being detained on the island. From EUObserver.com:

Some 19 members of the parliament’s civil liberties and justice committee will head to Malta on 23 and 24 March, led by the vice-president of the committee, Stefano Zappala. The MEPs are expected to visit the two detention centres sheltering immigrants and will also meet government ministers and NGOs.

"We are happy that a delegation from the European Parliament is coming to visit detention centres in Malta, because there is a need for more transparency. For example we don't agree with the decision that the press cannot go in the detention centres", said Fr Paul Pace, Assistant Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service in Malta. Last year around 1,800 illegal immigrants landed in Malta, the majority of them having left from Libya...