The appellant is a Bangladeshi national who was rescued and disembarked in Malta in December 2021. He was directly detained upon arrival and later declared that he is minor during the lodging of his asylum application and was referred for the age assessment procedure. He was still in an age assessment procedure with no final decision when he filed an appeal against his detention order.
The Board registered a conflict of interest due to the role of one of its members in the Minors Care Review Board and the case was set to be heard the next week before Division II.
However, the Board still noted that there was a claim that the appellant was a minor and therefore referred to the proviso of Article 14(1) of S.L. 420.06 which states that applicants who claim to be minors shall not be detained, except as a measure of last resort, unless the claim is evidently and manifestly unfounded and directed the PIO to act according to such proviso. The Board then ordered that the age assessment procedure is to be done as soon as possible.
The case was not heard in front of Division II since the appellant was released before the hearing after he was assessed as a minor by AWAS.
Source: PDF with the case
Comments are closed.