Baby Goodluck, who was born at Mater Dei Hospital shortly after his 23-year-old Nigerian mother was airlifted from a migrant ship last week, will not have automatic Maltese citizenship.
The infant – who is now at the Marsa Initial Reception Centre with his parents – will take the nationality of his Nigerian mother, Gift, since under Maltese law a baby born here only takes on Maltese citizenship if one of his parents is Maltese, explained a spokeswoman for the Home Affairs Ministry.
Goodluck could eventually become a Maltese citizenship through naturalisation if he and his family remain here.
On September 11, an Armed Forces of Malta helicopter evacuated the 23-year-old Nigerian, Gift, and her husband Gabriel, 27, from the NGO migrant rescue ship Ocean Viking in a dramatic, videoed emergency operation. Gift, who was heavily pregnant and past her due date, was taken to Mater Dei Hospital, where she gave birth to her son a day later – on September 12 at about 2.30pm.
Gift and baby Goodluck were discharged from hospital on Tuesday and taken to the Initial Reception Centre, run by the Agency for the Welfare of Asylum Seekers (AWAS), according to sources.
Goodluck could eventually become a Maltese citizenship through naturalisation if he and his family remain here
They will stay in a special unit, for families, within the IRC until they are given medical clearance to leave for the Ħal Far Family Centre, which is equipped for the needs of families with infants and small children.
All migrants entering Malta irregularly by boat are first pre-screened upon arrival by the police and health authorities.
They are then taken to the IRC to be medically screened and processed. During their stay at the IRC, that cannot exceed seven days, they are provided with information about their right to apply for international protection, assigned a caseworker and interviewed by Immigration Police.
Once they get clearance, they are transferred to an open centre.
Speaking to Times of Malta from her hospital bed last week, Gift and Gabriel described how they left Nigeria for a better life in Libya over two years ago, but were victims of human trafficking and abuse.
They said they felt they had no option but to escape Libya on a small rubber dinghy packed with some 50 people, even though Gift was due to give birth.
“Libya was not a good place for my baby,” she said, as her husband translated.
“I did not want to give birth there, so I prayed to God and trusted in him. I just want a safe place and a comfortable home for our family.”
Gabriel added: “When we found out she was expecting a baby she was angry as she didn’t want to get pregnant in those hard conditions. I said, ‘God knows why it happened that way. We are keeping the baby’.”