Aunt to care for baby whose parents drowned during crossing

The one-year-old girl rescued from a sinking ship last week will be reunited with her aunt, The Times has learnt.

Blessing, who turned one last Friday, is alone in the world after both her parents and brother drowned on the boat that was supposed to take them to a better life in Europe.

A woman travelling on the same boat claimed to be Blessing's aunt and the baby - who has spent the last few days in the care of the Ursuline sisters - is expected to be reunited with her.

Alex Tortell, operations director within the Justice and Home Affairs Ministry, told The Times that the woman is expected to be released from a detention centre today and would be taking care of Blessing.

Mr Tortell said the situation would continue to be monitored to ensure that the best interest of the child is safeguarded.

It is understood that the woman also lost her husband during the fateful voyage. She was airlifted to Malta together with her two-month-old baby and Blessing a week ago.

In the meantime the Emigrants' Commission is seeking legal advice on the case, and commission head Mgr Philip Calleja said work was underway to try and establish the baby's identity.

He said preliminary investigations had shown that Blessing's birth had not even been registered. Mgr Calleja said the commission was trying to confirm this, and if it results to be the case it would try to register her.

"We want to make sure that this child is able to access records of her identity and know who her parents were," he said.

Blessing is thought to be the daughter of a Nigerian man and a woman from Cameroon, but the lack of documents render her a stateless baby, Mgr Calleja said sadly.