A document with clear rules of discipline is badly needed. However this seems to be difficult in view of the fact that there is no law governing the detention centres as yet. 7· Marked Improvements in the Centres The Board noted a marked improvement in the atmosphere in the Centres, to a lesser extent in the Warehouses There is less unrest and detainees are very often rather calm and contained. Mental Health When detainess were at Mt Carmel Hospital the nursing staff has been very helpful and friendly with them and inpatients detainees are given the treatment required. The environment is however not very appropriate to house the undocumented migrants who have mental health difficulties. Unfortunately a major difficulty was the housing of drug addicts even female drug addicts in the same ward as the immigrants. Another problem was the state of the rooms and the ward at the mental hospital. As a consequence the Board in April wrote a report regarding the state of the division at Mount Carmel Hospital where the detainees were being housed. This report was then discussed by the Head of psychiatry at Mount Carmel, Dr Anton Grech and by Dr Clifton Grima. A meeting was also held with the administration at the Ministry to discuss changes that needed to be made. 8. Recommendations The Board has witnessed some positive improvements in the physical conditions of the Centres. However, capital investments in the form of refurbishments, etc. will be shortlived unless the Centres are also managed and organised in a pro-active manner. On going maintenance and proper organisation are as essential as the initial refurbishment of a capital nature. If this is not done the Centres infrastructure may deteriorate in a few months. The Board suggests the following: 9.1 Administration Of utmost importance and requiring immediate attention is the presence of a focal person /administrator for each block has an administrator, i.e. a person in charge of the overall care and welfare of detainees. Such a person would have direct contact and full 9

Select target paragraph3