Can you imagine being a 12-year-old refugee? You’ve had to flee your country, often without your parents. You have no birth certificate, and when you finally reach shelter, you’re detained as an adult for months on end.

In Malta, child refugees who don’t “look like children” are being held in adult detention centres for weeks and weeks. Without their birth certificates, there’s no way they can prove their age, leaving them stuck in detention centres with much older prisoners.

These children experience violence in detention and are taken advantage of because of their age. They have no access to necessary services or education. They suffer higher rates of mental illness, including PTSD, anxiety, and depression, made worse by symptoms they may have had before the traumatic events that led them to Malta.

There’s a big difference between a 13-year-old boy and a grown man, and for Malta to pretend otherwise is downright unethical.

Malta, keep ALL children out of adult detention facilities!

Diet Simon

Tewantin

AUSTRALIA