http://digbig.com/4ghec
James Button
"Malta's approach differs from Australia's in a key respect. Since 2003 it has abandoned indefinite detention, and now imprisons people for a maximum of 18 months. The policy is still the toughest in Europe, with 1500 people detained in grim barracks and even tents. The EU wants the country's maximum detention time reduced to six months.
Why the human wave has reached Malta is unclear. It may be because Italy and Spain have tightened their controls or that more people are leaving from Libya, which is said to contain 1.5 million transient, sub-Saharan Africans. Whatever the reason, Katrini Camilleri, of Malta's Jesuit Refugee Service, says "millions of people [in Africa] are on the move. You can divert the flow but you can't stop it".
