Mrs Justice Abigail Lofaro decided yesterday that a five-year-old child, the daughter of Eritrean migrants, who was being brought up by a Maltese couple, should be allowed to join her biological parents who were being taken to start a new life in Switzerland.

A bomb scare delayed the handing down of the decision.

The child was the subject of a court case by the Maltese couple who had requested the court to not allow the child to be taken abroad because of the stress that might be involved in her not understanding the sharp change in her environment. The Maltese woman who raised the child for five years did not mean to keep her forever, but sought a process which would be beneficial to the girl.

The Maltese couple used to help at the Ħal Far open centre where one day they saw a line of toddlers in buggies. The Maltese mother spoke to the girl’s mother who told her the daughter was only four months old and she needed someone to look after her so that she could go out to work. She also had a son at a creche.

The Maltese woman started taking the girl with her at weekends and when she had days off her work. She noticed that whenever she returned the child the latter showed signs of stress so, with the consent of the biological parents, the Maltese woman started taking care of her.

Mrs Justice Lofaro said there was no doubt that the Maltese mother had loved the child as if she were her own. She had in fact educated her at a private school and paid for everything that was needed. She had also taken her with her abroad and paid for a trip for her biological mother to take the child with her to Switzerland to see relatives there.

The Maltese couple learned that the child’s parents were to be re-allocated to Switzerland, together with their daughter, and just six days before they sought a warrant against her departure.

The biological parents, together with their four children, had been offered a new life in Switzerland, the court considered. This was a rich country which would offer them huge opportunities. A UNHCR official and documents from the International Organisation for Migration showed that if the family did not leave yesterday, they would never again have the opportunity to live in Switzerland.

The UNHCR said the child’s parents had always attended meetings called for them, and they had also remained in contact with their daughter, they had never abandoned her.

Claims by the Maltese couple that the biological father sometimes beat up his wife, who would lock up the children in a room, were not proved. Physiotherapist David Grillo testified that the child was a confident girl, sociable and loved the Maltese woman. Her version was that she had two mothers and her parents had promised to bring her to Malta on holiday, so as to be able to see the Maltese.

Mrs Justice Lofaro said she felt that in similar situations in future, the authorities should assign a child psychologist and a social worker to help all the parties, especially when they were minors, in the transition. The minor child should have the opportunity to conclude her academic year in school and be given time to understand she was being relocated to all her friends, and discuss the situation with her friends.

Social workers from Agenzija Appogg should work with the two families to reach agreement about access by the family of carers to the minor child after the relocation, and a social worker should be appointed who would have worked in the immigration sector, and a child psychologist should be appointed to explain the change to the minors.

18 Africans leave to start new lives in Europe

Meanwhile, 18 other beneficiaries of international protection from Eritrea, Somalia and Sudan left Malta yesterday to start a new life in Switzerland, as well as one beneficiary who will be moving to Liechtenstein. This departure is taking place within the framework of the European Union’s Relocation Project for Malta (EUREMA) which was extended in April 2011. This exercise is financed by the authorities of Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

The authorities of the hosting countries will, in the coming months, be assisting the beneficiaries to integrate in their society, a process which was initiated in the past weeks in advance of their departure from Malta.

Although not members of the European Union, Switzerland and Liechtenstein are conducting this relocation following a commitment made at the Ministerial pledging conference organised by the European Commission in May 2011 for Member States and Associated countries to assist countries receiving large numbers of asylum seekers. Other European countries have also committed to relocate beneficiaries of international protection from Malta, in the context of the extension of the EUREMA pilot project, or on a bilateral basis. These include Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and The Netherlands.

Several such departures have taken place since last November, with beneficiaries of protection leaving for Germany, Norway, Ireland and Denmark.

Seeing off the beneficiaries of international protection were Parliamentary Assistant Beppe Fenech Adami; the Swiss Consul General and representatives of UNHCR and IOM.

“Government strives to improve the living conditions of the centres where asylum seekers are hosted and increase the possibility for them to integrate better in our community. The size of our country and our small labour market make it however difficult for these people to find the opportunities they were seeking when they tried to reach Europe. Such reallocation projects address this need and provide a better future for these beneficiaries of international protection,” said Dr Fenech Adami.

“Switzerland is aware that Malta is bearing a particular heavy burden in the field of asylum” – the Swiss Ambassador Bernardino Regazzoni underlined in a statement – “So this initiative is a concrete sign of solidarity and friendship between Malta and Switzerland”.

“The Maltese couple learned that the child’s parents were to be re-allocated to Switzerland, together with their daughter, and just six days before they sought a warrant against her departure. The biological parents, together with their four children, had been offered a new life in Switzerland”