The author of the report Dr. Doug Rutledge, a former English teacher who has a PhD from the University of Chicago, claimed that asylum seekers in Malta "are held in detention for over a year, where they are regularly beaten" and raped.  The sanitary facilities in detention, he claims, are "inadequate, so people are constantly getting sick with very poor medical attention".

Rutledge recounts the case of Hassan Ali Mohamed.  When he was still living in Mogadishu, an armed militia told him that they were confiscating his house for their headquarters.  Then they opened fire killing Hassan’s son and his sister with the rest of his family scattered in several directions.  In time, Hassan made it to a refugee camp run by the U.N. in Libya.  One day, according to Rutledge, the Libyan military came into the camp with bulldozers, knocking over the shelters and beating the people as they ran.  At this point, Hassan had to bribe smugglers in Libya who, Rutledge claims, often are police themselves, to help him cross the Mediterranean in a leaky boat.  He ended up in Malta.

Rutledge writes, "In Malta, people are held in detention for over a year, where they are regularly beaten.  The sanitary facilities in detention are inadequate, so people are constantly getting sick, but they very poor medical attention.  There is no separation between men and women, so rape is a frequent occurrence, and if Somali men attempt to protect their sisters from rape, fights start, and more beatings occur”.

Still, Rutledge says, “when he got out of detention, Hassan was hopeful.  He thought that in Europe, humanitarian agencies would help him find his family; he could reunite with them, and he could get on with his life.  Unfortunately, this was not the case.  In Malta, a Catholic country, the form of subsidiary protection offered is called Humanitarian Protection, and it is a form of charity.  There are no rights as there would be under the Geneva Convention”.

So Hassan did not have the right to family reunification and does not have the right to work, as he would under the convention, reports Rutledge. He says, “In Malta, it is almost impossible for Somali refugees to find work.  When they do, the job only lasts for a few days at a time.  The Somali person will inevitably be paid a third or less than what a Maltese would make for doing the same job.  Moreover, if a refugee’s employer refuses to pay him, he has no recourse.  Hassan’s employer would not pay him for five days work.  He complained to the police, who simply reminded Hassan that he was African and had no rights in Malta”.

In his report, Rutledge writes that Hassan then “went to the refugee commission run by the Church, where the priest told him he would help, but nothing was done.  So Hassan, who is forty, is living in what is called an open centre, with hundreds of other refugees.  The sanitation is terrible, the living conditions are hot and uncomfortable, but he cannot leave this small island, where racism is rampant.  The Maltese actually want Hassan and all other refugees to go.  They even give them travel documents, but Hassan is clearly not going to pay the smuggler to take him back to Libya, and the Europeans will not let him enter”. 

Rutledge goes on to write, “if Hassan were to go to England or Holland and apply for asylum, he would be sent back to Malta.  He could attempt to live underground in England, for example.  He would have to work illegally, and he could not ask for medical care.  This is exactly the problem.  Sooner or later, through a medical need, a traffic accident, or simply the wrong conversation, Hassan would come to the attention of the system, and when he did, he would be sent back to Malta”.

 Europeans believe that they can discourage Somalis from entering Europe by using the Dublin Regulations to keep them in countries where life is terribly unpleasant, Rutledge writes. He then says that he interviewed people who consistently told him that they left because conditions in at home became such that they would either have to kill someone or be killed themselves. 

Rutledge concludes his report saying European governments must be encouraged to act in a more humane fashion toward Somali immigrants and to find a way to help people stuck in border countries like Malta, where life can be unfair and unbearable.