11 | PROTECTING STATELESS PERSONS FROM ARBITRARY DETENTION IN MALTA relevant point. The notification of succession contains the following declaration: "In accordance with article 20 of the Convention, the Government of Malta declares that: 22 (b) Article 16 of the Convention shall not apply to an illegitimate child born outside Malta."23 With regard to the Council of Europe, Malta signed the 1997 European Convention on Nationality in 2003. However, it is yet to ratify the Convention. Also, Malta did not sign or ratify the 2006 Convention on Avoidance of Statelessness in relation to State Succession. Most importantly, Malta has not acceded to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons or to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, which respectively define statelessness and the entitlements of stateless people, and prescribe reduction and prevention measures. The present administration, in power since 2013, seems willing to consider accession. 24 As already mentioned, the issue of statelessness in Malta is often intertwined and confused with the issue of irregular migration and asylum. It is therefore relevant to mention that Malta has been a party to the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees25 and its 1967 Protocol, since 1971 and has ratified them in 2001.26 Administrative detention of migrants in an irregular situation is a practice regulated by several international and regional instruments to which Malta is also a party. The European Convention for the protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR) 27 regulates deprivation of liberty and the prohibition of torture and inhuman treatment, often associated with deprivation of liberty measures. Specific European Union Directives also have an impact on the national detention regime. The Return Directive28 was first transposed into national law in 2011, followed by further amendments in 2014.29 The latter amendments, discussed below, introduced compulsory regular reviews of detention of persons awaiting return. Furthermore, the summer of 2015 will see another reform in Malta’s use of administrative detention with the transposition of the Recast Reception Conditions Directive.30 In essence, the Reception Conditions Directive provides specific guarantees for the detention of asylum-seekers,31 as does the Procedures Directive.32 2.2 NATIONAL LAWS, POLICIES AND JURISPRUDENCE PERTAINING TO STATELESSNESS AND DETENTION As Malta is not party to the 1954 and 1961 Stateless Conventions, no identification procedures are in place and therefore stateless people or those at risk of statelessness have no dedicated institution to approach. Since the phenomenon is mainly linked to irregular or forced migration, people claiming to be stateless are mainstreamed with the asylum-seeking population. The process is mainly seen as a border control one: either migrants are rescued at sea on their way to Europe from Libya and brought ashore, or after arriving by plane, they claim asylum. There is a difference of treatment between these two scenarios. In the first scenario, migrants are apprehended by the Immigration Police so as to prevent an irregular entry. In the second scenario, migrants may or may not have a visa to enter regularly and temporarily. In case of attempt to enter irregularly or of persons found to be in an irregular situation, migrants become “prohibited migrants” according to the Immigration Act:33 “Any person, other than one having the right of entry, or of entry and residence, or of movement or transit under the preceding Parts, may be refused entry, and if he lands or is in Malta without leave from the Principal Immigration Officer, he shall be a prohibited immigrant.” This prohibition also applies to people who originally entered regularly but who eventually contravened immigration restrictions. These restrictions are wideranging and some of them are problematic. They include, people who cannot prove sufficient means available to sustain themselves and their families during their stay; those who suffer from a mental disorder or from a contagious disease; those who have been found guilty of trafficking persons or drugs or are prostitutes; and dependants of prohibited migrants.34 Any person considered a prohibited immigrant by the Principal Immigration Officer will be issued with a removal order. “Upon such order being made, such person against whom such order is made, shall be detained in custody until he is removed from Malta.”35 Such detainees “shall be deemed to be in legal custody and not to have landed,” preventing therefore the actual irregular entry into the country. The Immigration Act does not specify a maximum length of detention for prohibited migrants more specifically than “until he is removed from Malta.” A maximum duration was only set up by a (then) Ministry for Justice and Home Affairs 2005 Policy Document: ‘Irregular Immigrants, Refugees and Integration’. This policy document provides that no one is to be kept in detention for longer than 18 months. Malta’s procedural guarantees related to a detention measure were found to