Migrant children reached Malta with a lot of hope and society should meet their desire to live in a world with real opportunities, President marie-Louise Coleiro Preca said today.

"Let us not be the ones to kill that hope," she said at a conference on unaccompanied children and young asylum seekers. The conference was organised by the University of Malta’s international relations and youth studies departments in collaboration with NOHA, an international network of universities that aims to enhance professionalism in the humanitarian sector.

Ms Coleiro Preca said that while the complexities and pressure to meet international demands, together with Malta’s size and resources could not be ignored, the wellbeing of migrant children could not be overlooked.

She stressed the importance of listening to the child’s voice and she expressed her satisfaction with the drafting of the Child Protection Bill, which is currently before Parliament.

“We should not only relate to children as future adults but as children who must enjoy childhood. Also, migrant children are not a homogenous group – each person has his or her own specific needs.

“Unaccompanied children may carry the scars of fighting in wars, child labour and exploitation and the experience of loss and trauma.

“When they arrive in Malta, they feel disorientated. We need to be more culture-sensitive,” she said, adding that identity was not developed in isolation.

Also present at the conference was 18-year-old Somalian refugee Farah Abdi Abdullahi, who first fled Somalia as a child to live in Kenya and then left Kenya in 2012 because people with his different sexual orientation would be persecuted.

“I went through hell and back – but I am not a victim, I am a survivor.

“Malta gave me the opportunity to live in a democratic environment where I can be who I am – and I never, not even for one second, take it for granted.”