Three adult adoptions among 13 cases finalised in 2025
Last year, 41 people expressed interest in adopting a child
Of the 13 adoptions finalised last year, five involved Maltese people, including three aged over 18.
This emerged in the annual report of the Social Care Standards Authority, Malta’s national regulator for social welfare services.
The authority is designated as Malta’s Central Authority, making it responsible for handling cross-border cases relating to child abduction and child protection, requests for the enforcement of decisions on cross-border maintenance, and requests concerning child access.
Its remit also includes cross-border adoptions and participation on a board overseeing specific local adoption cases.
According to the report, in 2025, the Malta Central Authority received 41 applications from prospective adoptive parents.
A total of 13 adoptions were finalised by the Maltese courts during the year: five local adoptions and eight intercountry adoptions involving children from India, Bulgaria, Colombia, Portugal, and Vietnam.
The majority of children adopted were between one and four years of age. Three local adoptions involved individuals over the age of 18.
At the end of 2025, a further six intercountry adoption cases remained in progress.
In these cases, an adoption decree had been issued by the courts in the child’s country of origin, while the corresponding decree from the Maltese courts was still pending.
Four of these children were from India, one from Slovakia, and one from Vietnam.
More than 1,700 inspections
During 2025, the Central Authority dealt with five new cases of cross-border child abduction, three of which were incoming requests and two outgoing.
It also handled 12 new requests for cross-border maintenance.
The report noted that in 2025, the Inspectorate Unit conducted a total of 1,762 visits across regulated sectors: 696 in the disability sector, 296 in children’s services, 150 in gender-based and domestic violence, 131 in addictions, and 489 in other areas.
During 2025, 238 remedial actions were issued.
The authority also handled 58 feedback cases and initiated 20 investigations.
These reports were submitted by service users, relatives, staff members, and other stakeholders, enhancing the authority’s ability to detect patterns that may not be immediately visible during scheduled inspections.
The report did not break down the types of cases.
In the section about finances, the report noted that by the end of 2025, the authority registered a surplus of €574,855, compared to a loss of €151,571 in 2024.