The needs of children facing the horrors of armed conflict are a step closer to being addressed thanks to a new agreement signed between the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Malta Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society.

This agreement will pave the way for focus groups with conflict-affected children from different communities who sought asylum in Malta, creating the safe space for them to share their experiences, discuss their needs and identify the challenges they face.

Signed today by Foreign Affairs Minister Ian Borg and MFWS chair Marie-Louise
Coleiro Preca, the agreement comes on the eve of Malta’s one-month presidency of the United Nations Security Council.

When Malta was last year elected to serve as a non-permanent member of the UN body responsible for maintaining global peace and security, Borg had made the subject of children and armed conflict one of Malta’s main priorities.

“We strongly believe that the protection of children facing conflict needs to be unequivocally addressed. Today’s agreement is a step in the right direction towards tangibly helping children and their families who are going through such turbulent times,” Borg said.

According to the UNHCR, there were 832 sea arrivals to Malta in 2021 and of these, 205 (25 per cent) were unaccompanied and separated children.

Although the number of sea arrivals has drastically gone down, throughout the years hundreds of children reached our shores from conflict areas such as Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Chad, Senegal, Ghana, Cameron, and now Ukraine.

“Millions of children have come face-to-face with armed conflict in their country in the past decade. Some of these traumatised children fled in search of safety and protection. This agreement paves the way for a child participation process that will channel their voices, together with a process of consultation with professionals working in the field,” Coleiro Preca said.

This project, Coleiro Preca added, aimed to create better awareness and to inform policy that lays down the necessary safeguards and protection mechanisms for these children and their families.

“The outcomes from these processes aim to help the State be better prepared to
respond to such crises, and to safeguard children’s human rights. The goal is to develop a toolkit of best practice that can be shared and applied in other Mediterranean countries and beyond,” she said.

The process in Malta will act as a pilot which can be replicated in other countries, in particular those in the Mediterranean. A report will be drafted in the end, which will support the ministry in its contribution on the UN Security Council.

“Hopefully, Malta will be a catalyst to map out children’s journeys to safety or the lack of it, and enable authorities to analyse the short- and long-term impact on these children.”