Migrants born at sea will no longer remain stateless and will be given the right to be registered in Malta, the Ombudsman said.
A probe by the Ombudsman’s Office into why such children remain without a legal identity has led to an agreement with the Home Affairs Ministry for the Civil Code to be amended. This would allow children born on board vessels to be registered in Malta, Joseph Said Pullicino told Times of Malta.
The Home Affairs Ministry has yet to confirm or deny the information.
However, ministerial correspondence sent to the Ombudsman’s office, and seen by Times of Malta, confirms the process to enact the required legislative amendments.
The Office of the Permanent Secretary in the ministry wrote to the Ombudsman: “The idea is that the Civil Code will be amended in the coming weeks to allow the director to accept these kinds of registrations, after the necessary verifications are made. The amendments have already been drafted and a Cabinet memo has been sent for consideration by the same Cabinet.”
Dr Said Pullicino welcomed the move, saying: “There are a number of cases of children born at sea... and they’ve had problems for the last five years on how to register them because there was no way of doing it”.
His concerns were echoed by Commissioner for Children Helen D’Amato in proposals submitted to the Commission on Justice Reform last May.
When reports of a possible pushback policy emerged last July, she had also written to the Home Affairs Minister underscoring the rights of migrant children.
She had said: “The rights of children are fundamental and universal. This means that these rights have no boundaries and that children carry their rights with them wherever they go, irrespective of their status.”
In the statement, the commissioner had highlighted the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child that Malta ratified in 1990, saying irregular migrants, including children, should not be seen as problems but as human beings and holders of rights that Malta is duty-bound to uphold.
President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca also endorsed the cause on Monday, calling for increased opportunities to be offered to them saying this would benefit society. Yet, she stopped short of addressing the fundamental right of children to have a legal identity.