The government of Malta was ordered to pay €5,000 to a teenage asylum seeker for breaching his fundamental rights. Judge Giovanni Grixti ruled that Ayoubah Fona was unlawfully detained as a minor in poor conditions. Lawyer Neil Falzon from aditus foundation, together...
F.AB Together | A retrospective on a project focusing on children in migration

Latest news
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JRS Malta launches complaints procedure
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Call for maternity leave cover: advocacy and administration
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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
Child unlawfully detained by Malta gets €5,000 compensation
The government of Malta was ordered to pay €5,000 to a teenage asylum seeker for breaching his fundamental rights. Judge Giovanni Grixti ruled that Ayoubah Fona was unlawfully detained as a minor in poor conditions. Lawyer Neil Falzon from aditus foundation, together...
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Child unlawfully detained by Malta gets €5,000 compensation
The government of Malta was ordered to pay €5,000 to a teenage asylum seeker for breaching his fundamental rights. Judge Giovanni Grixti ruled that Ayoubah Fona was unlawfully detained as a minor in...
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