Experts have voiced concern that there will be a repeat of the tragic death of Victoria, 7, unless action is taken about systemic gaps.

The Nigerian girl died on Sunday, after she was rushed to hospital from a residence in Żabbar where her family-of-five lived.

She died from a rare disease according to her death certificate.

Professionals familiar with the case questioned why children were not taken in care when the parents had shown symptoms of mental health issues or when they went missing from school for months.

Read: Dead girl’s family ‘barely had enough to eat’

They said that when Appoġġ was alerted about the family, the caller was told that the social service providers were aware of the case.

“This is in no way putting the blame on the social workers who are stretched beyond their limits.

“But something went wrong and we are concerned this will happen again. We all thought we could rely on the State and we had a right to believe that.”

The social structures were in place to prioritise cases, and it looked like somebody, somewhere, downgraded the priority of the case, they added.

Another professional pointed out there were no independent checks and balances about the day-to-day decisions taken and on how different child protection cases were prioritised.

This had to change, and one way to deal with it was to have regular reviews of the professionals and the cases they dealt with every two or three years.

The professionals spoke to this newspaper on condition of anonymity as two separate investigations have been opened about the death of Victoria, whose two siblings were placed under a care order following her passing away.

Another expert told this newspaper that there were systematic failures – both when it came to the protection of children and that of migrants – which have been highlighted over the past years and still see people falling through the cracks in the system.

When it came to migrants, issues were compounded as most did not benefit from the extended family’s support, which the majority of the Maltese do, the expert said.

Reacting to Victoria’s death, the Office of the Commissioner for Children yesterday said in a statement that it was “eagerly” awaiting the outcome of the two investigations and, based on these findings, it would assess what, if any, further action could take to shed light on any systemic shortcomings that might have directly or indirectly contributed to the girl’s death.

“Even the life of a child cut so short should be protected from speculation,” the office said.