A report by Médecins du Monde (MDM) German doctor in conjunction with other NGO’s criticised the illegal immigrants’ living conditions in open and detention centres. The report reveals the problem of severe overcrowding at Lyster Barracks where illegal immigrants are allowed as little as a few hours of fresh air a week and lack suitable sanitary facilities.
The report also states that if a medical service is introduced in Marsa and Ħal Far open centres, the workload on other polyclinics and St. Luke’s Hospital will be reduced. The medical aid will be nearer to the immigrants, helps in the prevention of diseases and can serve as an educational source on illnesses that can afflict illegal immigrants. This results from a study that was conducted for the past three months.
The report was presented by Niclas Luhmann, a German medical doctor and a specialist in international public health from MDM, Malika Bouhenia, a nurse and Fr. Paul Pace together with other NGO humanitarian aid organisations.
For the past three months MDM has been providing a 20-hour a week medical service to the two immigrant open centres at Hal-Far and Marsa. The medical service helped in detecting infectious diseases at an early stage and also served as a means of education how to prevent diseases and raising health awareness.
410 medical consultations have been carried out since the beginning of last June. According to the illegal immigrants themselves medical assistance given is not enough and sometimes they do feel discriminated.
Dr Luhmann says that most of the diseases suffered by illegal immigrants residing at the open centres are triggered by the conditions in which they live in. The German doctor reassured that there is not any health threat to the Maltese community.
Fr. Paul Pace confirmed that a medical service is already established in closed detention centres and appealed that it will be extended to illegal immigrants in the open centres.
The government is currently spending Lm35,000 out of public funds, channeled to medical services in the detention centres.
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