Third-country nationals are lying about their date of births to obtain a visa to come to Europe before reaching the required age of 18, with some of them ending up finding employment in Malta, The Malta Independent has learnt.

This means that, from a technical point of view, Maltese employers are unwittingly giving a job to under-age workers, having no possibility to verify the exact date of birth and having no way of checking whether certificates provided are real or fake.

The Malta Employers’ Association is aware of the situation, but it appears that little could be done to rectify the situation.

Joseph Farrugia, MEA Director General, said he knows about rumours going around about such situations, but there is no available documentation to prove that it is actually happening.

The employees themselves are more comfortable working in Malta, although they are under age, and employers have no way to check whether certification provided is legal. There is no indication that the matter will be addressed any time soon.

Farrugia said that because of this problem there is a risk that employers are employing underage individuals. He added that he knows about cases where underage people leave their country of origin for a chance of getting a better job, but there is no way of verifying their documentation.

The Malta Independent met with Emily and Maya, who are both third country national citizens, who both claim that they have falsified their birth certificates in order to come to work in Europe, and have settled in Malta.

Emily* does not know when she was born, as she was not registered at birth. In accordance with her documents, which were used to come to Malta, she is in her late 20s, but she does not know her real age.

She said that it was someone in her village, whom they refer to as “head”, who decided what her age should be. Emily said that the method used by the head to ‘decide her age’  was by combining her mother and father’s identity documents, which somehow added to her now being in her late twenties, even given the fact that not even her mother knows the year she was born in. 

She said that such a process started as soon as she ‘felt’ she was 16. She said that that there are people who take advantage of this loophole to leave the country of birth in search of a better life elsewhere. She added that there are politicians in her country who are willing to falsify birth certificates if given the desired cash reward.

Maya*, who is also a third national country resident, was born in a rural village, which made it impossible for her mother to even reach the nearest hospital in time for her birth. Like Emily, she was also not registered after she was born. 

Maya, unlike Emily, knew her age but registered for her visa to come to Europe when she was under the age of 18. The birth certificate she obtained, with a false birth date, allowed her to get the visa she required to leave the country.

Although both women came here for a better future, Emily said that it is all “business and money, with a promise for a better life... but in the end, it is not the truth”.

 

*The names of the persons interviewed by The Malta Independent on Sunday were changed to protect their identity.