The President is calling on the electorate to support politicians who uphold child protection, including that of migrants, in the upcoming MEP elections.
“From my former life as a politician I have first-hand experience of how difficult it can be to stand for these values, which might not be popular, including the issue we are discussing,” Marie Louise Coleiro Preca said at the end of the third Lost in Migration conference, organised by Missing Children Europe and her Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society.
She said the conference had flagged lacunae, including lack of training and coordination at national and cross-border levels that were preventing the necessary holistic progress to create a safe environment for migrating children.
The President was “deeply troubled” with comments by Federico Soda, Director of the IOM Coordination Office for the Mediterranean, that we have a “shrinking protection space” for children in migration.
“To address this situation, we must support those politicians who share our values.
“Knowing that we are passing through very challenging times, in the political life of our EU, and with the upcoming European Parliamentary elections, we must, as civil society, also support those politicians who share our values to be brave, to uphold child protection, including the protection of migrating children.”
Civil society needed to lobby with and support candidates who were working to ensure that each child could enjoy their rightful dignity, she added.
Unfortunately, legal frameworks were not adequately providing systematic child protection, and in the process, human rights continued to be breached for countless children.
We are being bombarded with hate speech
The President also referred to concerns raised by the conference’s participants about the increase in populist rhetoric.
“We are being bombarded with hate speech, exclusionary tactics, and, as a result, witnessing an escalation of social tensions.”
We could not remain complacent in the face of such challenges, because the normalisation of fear and hatred could only be addressed when we were brave and spoke out, pushing for action, Ms Coleiro Preca added.
A parent would only put their children in the boat when they thought that water is safer than land
Listen to the children
In order to address gaps in our protection system, it was important to include children and young people who had first-hand experience of migration and what it meant to be a migrating child and attempting to enter Europe.
She recalled the words of a young Syrian refugee who told the conference that most of the decisions being made were affecting young people, “yet we don’t see young people participating in these decisions. If young people do not participate, then people will make assumptions and have misconceptions about our situations. Talking to people about your first-hand experience makes a difference.”
Read: ‘Time to walk the talk and protect child migrants’ - UN representative
The President referred to another comment which she will always hold onto: that a parent would only put their children in the boat when they thought that water is safer than land.
She hoped that such narratives would influence and transform European communities.
Ms Coleiro Preca also hoped that the conference would provoke the necessary response from the authorities to ensure that migrating children were given much-needed protection.
The recommendations of the three editions of the conference have provided sufficient recommendations and guidelines to put the relevant policies and safeguards in place and provide the protection that every child, whoever they might be and wherever they might come from, rightfully deserved, she added.
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