‘This is our second day of freedom’

A Somali woman shuffles into the medical room at Lyster Barracks detention centre, her colourful garments unable to detract from her pained expression. Having arrived in Malta earlier yesterday morning, she is the human face of the polarised public debate on irregular migration she is not yet aware of. As Times of Malta is escorted around Hermes Block of the closed centre in Ħal Far, the detainees reveal why they made the perilous journey. Onboard her vessel there were 67 others, including a baby born at sea. They brought the total of irregular migrants landing in Malta in the past week to 461, with more scheduled to arrive. Waiting patiently outside the medical room as the Somali woman enters is a weary Eritrean with his foot heavily bandaged. “A gunshot wound,” a stoic Michael Tekeste clarifies. He was one of three found with bullet injuries onboard a leaky dinghy containing 291 mostly Eritrean migrants last Thursday. Mr Tekeste explains he was shot while escaping from an overcrowded Libyan detention centre, where food and water were scarce and medical facilities nonexistent. He says he was shot at despite paying $500 he borrowed from friend on the outside to a “soldier” at the...