The Civil Code is to be amended in the next weeks to enable the director of Public Registry to accept registration of births at sea, according to correspondence between the Ombudsman and the Home Affairs Ministry.

A copy of the correspondence has been sent to the Emigrants’ Commission which has been trying to register the birth of a girl born at sea since November 2008.

In a statement this afternoon, Emigrants Commission director Mgr Philip Calleja said Chama Hatra, an immigrant from Somalia, gave birth to a girl, Muna, while fleeing Libya.

In July 2009, the Emigrants’ Commission unsuccessfully filed an application in the family court requesting the court to consider Muna’s registration. The application was then moved to the Civil Court, where it was also denied.

The commission wrote to the Ombudsman in November 2012 explaining that in spite of all the attempts made, Ms Hatra and her daughter left Malta for France with the girl’s birth still unregistered.

The commission said there were other similar cases. It also made its case at Parliament’s select committee on the family and gave details about the case during a conference on stateless persons organised by the UNHCR last January.

The Commission said that according to a Unicef report, the birth of 50 million children born each year, two out of every five born, is not registered.

The registration of a birth is considered a human right.