Updated: Commissioner concerned over Lourdes Home children's re-housing

The Commissioner for Children, Carmen Zammit, (picture) said today that she was concerned that a suggestion she and others had made for the government to step in to help Lourdes Home so that its young residents would not need to be re-housed was not given sufficient consideration.

The Home, which was at the centre of abuse allegations, is being closed down and may be converted into an old people's home.

Ms Zammit she was concerned over the trauma the children were suffering because of being re-housed, to Malta, and also the fact that Gozo could end up without a single children's home.

"This action is taken notwithstanding the recommendations made by the Commissioner for Children, together with concerns raised following her consultation with the children involved in a visit to the Home," a statement by the Office of the Commissioner said.

"This severely compromises the ability of the Commissioner for Children to seek to ensure that the rights and interests of children are properly taken into account by government departments, local authorities, other public bodies and voluntary and public organizations when decisions on policies affecting children are taken, as laid down in the Commisisoner for Children Act, the Office of the Commissioner said.

In its statement, the Office said the commissioner remained concerned over the fate of the children.

"The transition from the family home to a residential care institution is a traumatic occurrence in itself for the children involved, without having to be exacerbated by cutting the ties that the children would have formed whilst in Lourdes Home. The children have not only changed their residence, but have also been separated from one another, changed schools in the run-up to the exam period, and moved to a neighbouring island. These factors already present difficulties when considered separately, and are magnified when they are imposed on these children simultaneously."

The office pointed out that the commissioner in her recently published Manifesto for Children, had already highlighted the problem of the lack of residential care facilities in Gozo.

"Since the publication of the manifesto, the problem has increased dramatically with the closure of the only residential care institution for children on the island. Gozitan children now have no facilities for out-of-home care where required.!

The Manifesto for Children states that "every effort should be made in order to provide alternative services for children who require out of home care, including the provision of fostering by professionally trained and adequately paid foster carers".

The Commissioner said she was urging the authorities to take heed of this suggestion, and to take urgent steps to address this lacuna.

"The Commissioner also urges the immediate provision of all necessary professional support to the previous young residents of Lourdes Home, in order for the best interests of the child to be given due paramount importance."