F.AB Together | A retrospective on a project focusing on children in migration

May 14, 2024

Latest news

Child unlawfully detained by Malta gets €5,000 compensation

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JRS Malta launches complaints procedure

We are here for you…  At JRS we do our best to provide clients with a professional service focused on supporting clients’ needs. We do our utmost to help clients feel respected and supported, as we meet their needs. If however there has been a situation where you have...

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Call for maternity leave cover: advocacy and administration

JRS Malta is seeking to recruit a Maternity Leave Cover – Advocacy & Administration to work with forced migrants and asylum seekers. The selected candidate will be offered a 6-month definite term full-time contract. As this post is a maternity leave cover, renewal...

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JRS is seeking to recruit a Lawyer

JRS Malta is seeking to recruit a LAWYER, to work with asylum seekers and immigrants in Malta. The post is a full-time post, however applications from individuals wishing to work part-time or reduced hours will also be considered. Individuals who cannot work at least...

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The Project F.AB Together (Family Based Care for Children in Migration) aimed to support the improvement and expansion of alternative family-based care systems for unaccompanied migrant children. The project was implemented in 5 Mediterranean front line countries: Italy, Greece, Spain, Cyprus and Malta.

However, at present there are no unaccompanied minors in Malta who reside in family-based care, owing largely to shortcomings in existing legislation, as well as policies which treat forced migration as an issue of national security, rather than as a children’s rights issue guaranteeing quality care and protection. This necessitated that we approach the project with a greater emphasis on advocacy, and bringing together relevant stakeholders in the field of social care and migration.

In parallel to this project, research was conducted on the transition into adulthood for unaccompanied minors, funded through Fondation Assistance Internationale (FAI), in which interviews were carried out with young adults who shared their experiences of detention as minors, and who spoke of the general lack of support and guidance, amongst other struggles, as they transitioned to adulthood while still within Malta’s reception system.

The document we want to share here aims to outline the lessons learnt through this project, and for these lessons to inform our vision for alternative care for unaccompanied children in Malta. It is hoped that the key messages shared here can guide future work and advocacy in this area, with the support of stakeholders who are currently working on the ground in the field of social care and migration, and who therefore have a meaningful understanding of the current needs of their service users.

These stakeholders, representing organisations that are providing essential services in the field of children’s rights and migration, have come together through this exercise in order to endorse the key messages being put forward.

This project has been funded by the NGO Co-Financing Fund (NCF) managed by the Malta Council for the Voluntary Sector (MCVS) supported by the Ministry for Inclusion and the Voluntary Sector (MIV)

 

Latest news stories

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As 2025 draws to a close, we want to thank you for continuing to walk this journey with us, a journey alongside countless refugees and displaced families who long for safety, peace, and a place to belong. Unfortunately, just when the needs are greatest, devastating...

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We are here for you…  At JRS we do our best to provide clients with a professional service focused on supporting clients’ needs. We do our utmost to help clients feel respected and supported, as we meet their needs. If however there has been a situation where you have...

JRS is seeking to recruit a Lawyer

JRS Malta is seeking to recruit a LAWYER, to work with asylum seekers and immigrants in Malta. The post is a full-time post, however applications from individuals wishing to work part-time or reduced hours will also be considered. Individuals who cannot work at least...

Standing together, with refugees

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As 2025 draws to a close, we want to thank you for continuing to walk this journey with us, a journey alongside countless refugees and displaced families who long for safety, peace, and a place to...

read more