The birth of eight-year-old Muna, born on a boat just before it entered Malta in November 2008, was registered at the Public Registry this morning, the Emigrants’ Commission said.

The registration follows a Court of Appeal decision on September 30.

Muna was born to Chama Hatra, a Somali mother, on a boat that left Libya with some 67 migrants. Just after the baby was born, the migrants were rescued by a Russian ship, which was eventually brought to Malta.

In July 2009, Chama and Muna left for France, as part of a responsibility sharing initiative between the French and Maltese authorities. But the child remained unregistered.

The Emigrants’ Commission unsuccessfully filed an application in the family court requesting the court to consider Muna’s registration. The application was then moved to the Civil Court, where it was also denied.

The commission wrote to the Ombudsman in November 2012 explaining that in spite of all the attempts made, Ms Hatra and her daughter left Malta for France with the girl’s birth still unregistered.

Although the Civil Code was eventually amended to enable the director of Public Registry to accept registration of births at sea, the authorities still refused to register the child as she was not born on the boat that had entered Malta.

But an Appeal Court decided in September that while the child had not been born on the boat that entered Malta, her transfer to that boat had taken place because that which she was born on was in a perilous situation.

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