More than a quarter of migrants referred to the Agency for the Welfare of Asylum Seekers (Awas) are unaccompanied minors and this put considerable strain on its resources.

Awas director Alexander Tortell told the House Social Affairs Committee the agency agreed that the law regarding care orders had been overtaken by events and needed revision.

The committee was discussing the aspect of unaccompanied minors in relation to the Child Protection Act. The agency was keen to expand the concept of unaccompanied minors as envisaged in the law.

Among the services provided by Awas for unaccompanied minors were care orders and the provision of peripatetic teachers to provide as much normality as possible in the minors’ lives.

The youths and children came fromdisturbed backgrounds of war and other horrors, so difficult behaviour was more likely to occur.

In such cases, the solution was not necessarily criminal procedures but, rather, this should be the last resort.

Detention of minors, whether accompanied or not, had been resolved by the new policy not to hold them.

There were migrant children who even went to Mcast, having used the facilities provided. The system was monitored by an advisory board.

Mr Tortell said Awas was in favour of mainstreaming and integration of children in society and this seemed to be receiving more attention in society.

On the issue of guardianship, he said the new law had made great strides ahead as the children needed legal representation.

One of the services offered by the agency was that of “family chasing”.

Mr Tortell cautioned that Awas was very careful in reuniting families to ensure it was not caught up inadvertently in human trafficking.

The committee was also briefed by chairman Deborah Schembri on the meeting held with the UN sub-committee on the prevention of torture.

Dr Schembri reported on the meeting held with the chairperson of the EUCommittee on Human Rights, where the issue of migration was again raised.