The Office of the Commissioner for Children has joined calls urging the court to rethink a decision to jail two Turkish mothers, separating them from their very young children. 

Rabia Yavuz, 27, and Muzekka Deneri, 29, were last week sentenced to six months in prison for travelling with false documents.

Their two young boys, aged three and four, were heard wailing when the court handed down the sentence. The children are under State care but do not speak English or Maltese.

Children's Commissioner Pauline Miceli's office backed calls from lawyers, NGOs and a former UN expert for the court to reviews the situation.

"Other forms of sentencing should have been explored in the case of these migrants, therefore, the decision to jail the mothers should be redressed as soon as possible to minimise the trauma caused," her office said in a statement. 

The only contact between the mothers and their boys has been via Skype. 

According to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, children should not be separated from their parents but should be allowed to maintain personal relations if they are separated.

"The Office urges all entities involved to ensure that the children are well taken care of, that they are enabled to maintain meaningful contact with their mothers and that their privacy is respected," the statement continued.

The mothers are have appealed the judgement.

Yavuz and Deneri, together with an Algerian and a Libyan man, were arrested at the airport last Monday. They had been travelling from Greece to Belgium via Malta when they were stopped.

The women had presented false French and Italian identity cards and one of them also had two illegal Romanian cards.