Seven children, five of whom are Maltese, are currently living in the care of the State while one of their parents serves time in jail, according to a spokesperson for the Foundation for Social Welfare Services. 

An eighth child, a baby boy - is living with his mother - a foreigner whose nationality has not been confirmed - at the Corradino Correctional Facility, where infants under the age of one are allowed to stay with their mothers.

Since the baby will have to move out of jail when he turns one, the authorities are trying to contact relatives abroad to ensure the infant will not have to be placed in the care of the State when the time comes, a spokesperson said.

Five under care order, two under voluntary care

The foundation is currently dealing with seven children whose parents are in jail.

Four of these children, handled by the Directorate for Alternative Care within the foundation, involve Maltese parents - three fathers and a mother - serving time at the Corradino Correctional Facility while their children are under a care order.

A fifth case, handled by the foundation’s Child Protection Directorate, also under a care order, the child is being cared for by the State while the Maltese mother is serving time for a criminal offence which she is appealing.

Meanwhile, two siblings from a mother from the Ivory Coast have been placed under voluntary care with the mother’s consent while she serves 12 months behind bars.

Child not in care order, visits father in jail

Separately, a child who is not living in care holds regular supervised access visits with his foreign father who is an inmate - following a court decree handed down during the parents’ separation proceedings.

The ages of the children as well as the crime committed by the parents and duration of the jail term is not known.

The issue of children living in State care while their parents serve time in jail recently made headlines when two young boys were separated from their Turkish mothers after they admitted to travelling with forged passports. 

The women - Rabia Yavuz, 27, and Muzekka Deneri, 29 - were jailed for six months.

Their sons - three-year-old Akif and four-year-old Sina - were placed in the care of the State as they had no relatives in Malta.

Lobbyists and legal experts argued that the sentence breached Malta’s human rights obligations in terms of the protection of children as well as refugee protection.

A protest - condemning a system that did not keep the children’s best interest at heart -  was attended by members of Movement Graffitti, the Maltese Association of Social Works, Aditus Foundation as well as former President Marie Louise Coleiro Preca as president of Euro Child, a network of organisations and individuals working with and for children in Europe.

The women, who applied for asylum, appealed the jail term. It was later converted into a suspended sentence and they were reunited with the children.