‘It’s good here – there is no one trying to kill me’

A chunky padlock clicks open, followed by the creaking sound of a sliding metal gate, and a pack of journalists and photographers stream into the Safi detention centre. Some of the residents are still asleep, half-naked on their bunk beds, but their eyes soon squint open as cameras start flashing and shuttering all around them. One of the deeper sleepers – a young man who ditched his bed for the cooler concrete floor – is awoken by a gentle kick by one of the more jovial soldiers. Still clearly in his teens, the young man springs to his feet and runs to the back of the room to hide from all the attention. “This is where we keep the males,” says an army officer just before we enter, without any hint of irony. “The females are kept in the other blocks at Ħal Far,” the well-meaning officer adds, oblivious to the fact that his words risked being misinterpreted. He speaks in English because the group includes international reporters whose editors must have noted Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s foot-stamping last week. Organised by the Home Affairs Ministry, the tour of the detention centres gave journalists the chance to speak to some of the hundreds of migrants who landed here this...