[SLIDESHOW]
Rows of tents occupy the hangar at Hal Far open centre for refugees
The old airplane hangar at Hal Far is serving as an open centre
for asylum seekers, but residents say it's dangerous, as squalid
conditions make it especially threatening for children as young as four
months old.
Text, photography by Martina Said
The first thing to welcome visitors is undoubtedly the pungent smell of
the domestic sewage, with dirty pools of water gathered in gutters
around the hangar. This, combined with dirty floors and the absence of
mattresses, is of serious concern to 35-year-old Ethiopian Dawit Metamu,
speaking on behalf of the residents inside the Hal Far hangar - a
makeshift open centre for asylum seekers.
Dawit arrived in Malta from Libya on 29 March, where he was
subsequently detained and finally placed at the Hal Far open centre,
three days ago, along with a group of families which have been removed
from detention.
“All the children here are under four years old, the youngest one four
months old and another six months. In the night it is cold here, there
is garbage close to our tents, a smell of sewage, dirty toilets and
rats,” he claimed.
Dawit says children sit and frolic on the dirty floor, as young
children do, then put their hands in their mouths and get sick. “The
floor is not just covered in dust but also with gasoline which is
flammable and very dangerous.”
To show just how grimy the floor is, a mother puts her young child on
the floor and lets her muck around, lifting her up again to show her
small blue jeans turned grey with dirt.
Helen Weldemicael, 23, mother to a six-month old child, explains how
the living conditions at the hangar are especially hazardous to her
following the birth of her child in Libya by Caesarean-section. She has a
prescription for medicine from the Floriana Health Centre, but nobody
at the hangar has told her anything about how to go about obtaining the
medication she needs.
One of the greatest complaints of residents at the hangar is the lack
of adequate bedding, with blankets and sheets, but no mattresses, so
where they sleep resembles more of a stretcher. Each tent can house a
maximum of four persons, but only two beds are available in each tent,
so children must share a bed with their parents.
The hangar is also noticeably dark, with only two working ceiling bulbs
to light up a considerably large building. “It is very dark inside.
Each tent has its own light bulb but only works for two hours, and then
has to be charged. All there is in our tent is what we have - no pots,
pans, cookers or anything else we need. The kitchen is also very dirty
and has to be shared by around 400 people,” Dawit said.
After taking a look at the communal toilets and shower room, which are
cut off from the hangar, it is easy to understand why residents
complain. Clogged and overflowing sinks and slippery dirty floors must
be used by men, women and children alike.
Dawit said: “There are no washing basins where children could be
washed, they must use the showers. This is bad for them because the
water temperature of the showers cannot be controlled, and they are also
dirty.”
The asylum seekers at the hangar, who had been working in Libya but are
originally from Ethiopia and Eritrea, say they are grateful to the
Maltese for rescuing them and taking care of them on their arrival. “We
understand that the Maltese government needs help, the EU has to help,
but we never expected to be living like this,” Dawit says.
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