Updated at 2.30pm with statement from Office of the Commissioner for Children

No Malta-born Eritrean children are among the group of “failed” asylum seekers due to be repatriated, Home Affair Minister Carmelo Abela said this morning.

Moreover, he denied that the decision not to renew the temporary humanitarian protection of a number of migrants was a populist move, saying Malta had already hosted half of the number asylum seekers from Italy and Greece, which had been agreed under an EU relocation programme.

“This is a false story as there are no women no children in detention,” Mr Abela said in a joint news conference with Austrian Home Affairs Minister Wolfgang Sobotka.

According to a Malta Today story published last Sunday, a married couple who have been in Malta for 11 years, together with their two children aged eight and seven years, will be deported to Eritrea once their temporary protection expires next August.

Mr Abela rejected the claims.

“This is a false story. Twenty-four Mali nationals are waiting for a Mali delegation to be interviewed with the intention of deportation. We have to wait first and foremost for the outcome of this delegation… I am also National Security Minister and people also care about security.”

Such a decision had nothing to do with public sentiment

Asked if he would pledge that no African children would be deported, the Home Affairs Minister said the only promise he could make was to abide by all legislation.

Commenting on the reason for the government’s decision to stop issuing temporary humanitarian protection permits, Mr Abela said this arrangement had been introduced in 2010 and placed under the responsibility of the refugee commissioner. The commissioner's role is not to give “failed” asylum seekers some sort of alternative when they do not have protection.

“The way forward is that those who qualify for asylum should be protected, but those who do not should be repatriated,” he said.

The minister added that such a decision had nothing to do with public sentiment. “Had it been the case we would have not participated in the relocation of migrants from Italy and Greece. We already brought to Malta more than 53 per cent of our agreed figures.”

Yesterday, the Faculty for Social Wellbeing said that the government's decision to revoke the status of migrants with temporary humanitarian protection meant they were being stripped from their basic human rights.

The Austrian Home Affairs Minister, who is paying a visit in preparation of Malta’s forthcoming EU presidency, expressed his support for Malta’s plan to engage with North African countries like Tunisia, to address the migration crisis.

As for EU plans to have a common coordinated approach on this issue, he said the so-called Dublin regulation reform should be treated separately, saying this  was arguably the most controversial of all seven proposals floated by the European Commission. 

Commenting on Austria’s controversial stance on border security, he said that as long as the EU’s external borders were not secure, the country has to secure internal borders in line with Article 29 of the EU Treaty.

He said that Austria wanted to establish regular migration patterns while cracking down on illegal crossings.

Give migrants integrated here a more definite and permanent status - Commissioner for Children

Migrants who remained in Malta and integrated in Maltese society should not only have their Temporary Humanitarian Protection (THP) status renewed but should also be given a more definite and permanent one, the Office of the Commissioner for children said in a statement.

It said that the fact that some of these migrants would have given birth to and were bringing up children in Malta was a clear sign that this country was their home.

So the process that should be drawn up for them to acquire a safe status should include citizenship, which they should be able to acquire at some point in their life.

This process should not be limited to children born in Malta but should be extended to migrant children born in other countries but who would have integrated in Malta irrespective of whether or not they enjoyed international protection.

The office acknowledged that progress had been registered when it came to the treatment of migrant children who were no longer being held in detention but said a lot still needed to be done for the integration of these people to be facilitated.

This could not be done if they were left to live in Malta as stateless people and in fear of deportation.

The office pointed out that THP was just a temporary status which meant that migrants could never get to have a definite status even if they would have been living, working and bringing up children in Malta for a long time because this form of protection did not have a legal basis.

The government’s recently announced decision not to renew THP for migrants who had been in Malta for a long time uncovered the shortcomings of this policy and this decision should not be retroactive, it said.