Prime Minister Robert Abela and Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri will take the witness stand this afternoon in a human rights case filed by asylum seekers who had been detained at sea for nearly 40 days.
The 32 plaintiffs, coming from Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Liberia and Bangladesh among others, had been detained on board boats normally used for coastal sightseeing cruises, after being rescued at sea in the Maltese search and rescue region in April 2020.
The former detainees are claiming that their prolonged confinement at sea constituted a breach of their fundamental rights.
The case dates back to 2020 when the government had chartered four commercial sightseeing boats from Captain Morgan, a local sightseeing cruise company, and used them to detain asylum seekers who had been rescued in the Maltese search and rescue region.
A total of 57 individuals had been rescued by the Libyan-flagged fishing vessel Dar al-Salaam, which was itself involved in a separate pushback to Libya. In an operation coordinated by the government, the group of migrants were transferred on to the Captain Morgan vessels around 13 nautical miles off the coast.
The operation came at a time when, citing the coronavirus outbreak, both Malta and Italy had closed their ports to migrant rescues. Malta had claimed that sea rescue was not possible because of limited resources, and prohibited humanitarian rescue vessels from entering port.
They filed their constitutional claim in October 2021, against the Prime Minister, the minister for Home Affairs and the State Advocate, before the First Hall of the Civil Court in its Constitutional Jurisdiction, arguing that their fundamental human rights – in particular, their right to freedom from arbitrary arrest and their right to freedom from inhuman and degrading treatment- had been breached.
They are also seeking compensation for the violation of their fundamental human rights.
The plaintiffs are being assisted by aditus Foundation director and human rights lawyer Neil Falzon, aditus Foundation assistant director Carla Camilleri, aditus lawyer Mireille Boffa, lawyer and JRS director Katrine Camilleri, and lawyer Cedric Mifsud.
Photo: Rene Rossignaud/AP
