Another 19 non-EU children whose parents live and work in Malta are facing eviction since their families do not earn enough to care for them, according to Identity Malta.

A fortnight ago The Sunday Times of Malta reported that residence permits of 22 children had been denied since their parents did not satisfy the financial requirements of a policy which requires third-country nationals to earn €19,000 a year, as well as €3,800 extra for each child.

The total number of children facing eviction has now grown to 41 and all their families will be appealing the cases. The children will be able to stay in the country until their case is decided.  All the families involved received letters from Identity Malta informing them of the decision taken.

The group of children facing eviction are predominantly Serbs, but there are also Ukrainians, Filipinos and Macedonians.

At least five of the families sent rejection letters showed evidence to Times of Malta they would be able to meet the requirements of Identity Malta’s financial policy if the government entity took into consideration their bonuses and overtime that they earn.

Sandra Stefanovic Djordjevic, the mother of two boys and a girl facing eviction explained that she and her partner have a combined basic salary €28,700 and were short of the mark by €1,700.

But if Identity Malta included overtime and bonuses in the calculation of their income, they would not be in the situation they are now in, fearing for the future of their children who were “confused and suffering”, she said.

Julia Farrugia Portelli, Parliamentary Secretary for Citizenship, two weeks ago said that Identity Malta applied a more lenient formula when it came to assessing the parents’ earnings, which measures their income against a figure closer to the minimum wage.

This meant that families failing this assessment were at risk of living beneath the poverty line and for this reason the policy was working in the “best interest of their children.”

“We need to stay away from reporting sensational stories in the media and keep the interests of the children in mind. We have a responsibility not to allow these children to live in poverty,” she had said.

Marija Nestorovic-Koprivica, the mother of three boys whose residence permits were rejected, told Times of Malta that the policy did not seek to prevent the children from poverty but the reverse.

“My kids live well here and have everything they want. This is why we moved to Malta you know. To give our children a better future.”

“We came from a country where my husband and I each made €350 a month and where the cost of living is almost the same as Malta. We couldn’t buy them presents for Christmas and give them all that we do here.”

Ms Koprivica also maintains that she and her husband would reach the figure required by Identity Malta if the agency considered their bonuses and overtime.

And what makes her really upset is that it seems like Identity Malta wants them to stay and work, but without their children.

“Every time I went down to Identity Malta and they didn’t allow me to submit my children’s application they never told me we couldn’t stay here with our children. They said we need to send the children back, and they kept on repeating it.”

“So they want us to work here. They just don’t want us to keep our families.”

Lawyers Arthur Azzopardi and Lara Dimitrijivic will be representing the families pro bono.

December 30: An earlier version of this article said that the Parliamentary Secretary previously rejected the families' claims that overtime and bonuses were not included in the income assessment. To clarify, Identity Malta takes into account stable and regular resources only.