A Nigerian migrant in Malta who contracted COVID and was taken to hospital said he was “deprived of liberty for the entire six months since he arrived in Malta,” even as others said they experienced different kinds of abuse.
The unnamed Nigerian was cited in a recent UN study titled “’Lethal Disregard’: Search and rescue and the protection of migrants in the central Mediterranean Sea.”
The 37-page report, published by Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), says in Maltese migrant detention centers, guards used pepper spray, physical violence, and rubber bullets on migrants.
Also, in working to “pull back” migrants away from Maltese shores, European Union search and rescue (SAR) authorities applied hardline measures that amounted to abuse, the study found.
The study focused on the human rights challenges that migrants face in the context of SAR and the protection of migrants in the central Mediterranean Sea.
Covering January 2019 to December 2020, the study examined obstacles migrants face when crossing the Mediterranean Sea. Malta was copiously mentioned.
Among other things, it highlighted the problems migrants go through when landing on Maltese shores and the dangerous living conditions they endure in detention centres on the island.
Read the full story in Nigeria Abroad
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