A Council of Europe report recently laid bare the inhumane conditions in the centres, where migrants were unlawfully held and “forgotten for months”, and COVID-19 patients were left to mingle with other detainees. The rise in admissions should not come as news given the mishandling of the pandemic in detention centres, aggravating the already terrible conditions, human rights NGO aditus said when contacted. Aditus director Neil Falzon said that in light of those gruesome conditions, he was not surprised that the pressures caused by the pandemic had spurred a rise in mental health problems among detainees. “While we were all sanitising, keeping socially distant and following daily news updates, detained people were rubbing shoulders with persons testing positive and had no way of protecting themselves,” he said.