A third of Malta’s prison inmates are awaiting trial, with the lengthy detention described as a “problem” in a new US report on human rights in the country. The report also flags the limited access that survivors of sexual violence have to government sexual and reproductive health services. The annual report looks at adherence to internationally recognised individual, civil, political and worker rights. Looking at 2021, it notes that lengthy pretrial detention remains a “problem” in Malta: the “authorities occasionally confined foreign suspects for more than two years pending arraignment and trial, normally due to lengthy legal procedures. "Approximately 34 per cent of the prison population was in pre-trial detention”. It also claims that while local courts normally grant bail to citizens, they “rarely” granted bail to foreigners. 'Limited access to reproductive health' Separately, the document says that when it comes to reproductive rights, in 2021 there were no reports of coerced abortion or involuntary sterilisation by government authorities. It adds that the country’s ban on abortions allows no exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest or when a pregnancy...