President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca said today that she had wished to attend the canonisation of the two popes last Sunday but her Office had no control on the date of a visit of a delegation from the UNHCR to discuss the migration situation.

The delegation attended a meeting at San Anton Palace which grouped all parties involved in dealing with migrants.

The President said the UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) and the International Organisation for Migration had pledged their technical support in the field of migrants and refugee children.

Ms Coleiro Preca said that Malta required international support especially in the area of capacity-building to be able to cope with large influxes of migrants. She added that the international community was morally obliged to assist Malta to tackle irregular migration.

On their part both the UNHCR and the IOM welcomed the Prime Minister’s commitment of not keeping migrant children in detention. Civil society, representatives from various ministries as well as Church authorities took part in these talks.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.