Two young Turkish boys will today be able to see their mothers in person again, eight days after being separated when a court jailed the women for six months for using forged travel documents.

Akif Yavuz, who turns three next week, and Sina Deneri, 4, will be reunited with their “anne” – the Turkish word for “mummy” – for several hours today.

They will meet “in a safe and adequate environment for the children”, according to a spokesperson for the child protection services within government support agency Appoġġ.

Until now, the boys have only been allowed daily virtual calls with their mothers, Rabia Yavuz, 27, and Muzekka Deneri, 29.

The mothers say they only used forged papers to avoid repatriation to Turkey, from where they fled in the aftermath of an attempted 2016 coup.

Malta’s courts have faced heavy criticism for the sentence, which NGOs and experts say breaks the Geneva Convention and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The children’s fathers are in daily contact with their wives but have so far not been able to speak to their sons.

Musa Deneri said his wife told him that the authorities were treating them and the children very well.

“They [the children] are doing activities, they took them swimming but there is a lot of longing for parents… they take good care of them but they miss their parents very much. Unfortunately, she [my wife] cries when the phonecall ends… Trying to look strong gives morale but every time I talk to my wife, we ​​both cry together,” he said.

Fatih Yavuz agrees: “I talk to my wife every day. She sees my son on video every day.

They take good care of them but they miss their parents very much

“She said that our son was fine, playing games, eating his own meals.

“He would only get up at night while he was sleeping and cry… when we were together, he would come to us when he woke up at night.”

The women, both teachers, and their husbands, who are still in Greece where the families arrived last year, form part of the Gulen movement that was blamed for the failed uprising.

Members of the movement have been prosecuted in Turkey, which considers the movement a terrorist organisation.

On Monday, the women appealed the judgment claiming it was “disproportionate and excessive” given the circumstances: they were fleeing political prosecution and, apart from that, they have two young children who have no other family connections in Malta.

The children were placed in state care pending their release.

In the appeal, lawyers Gianluca Cappitta and Jason Grima also noted that the women, who started the process to apply for refugee status, were covered under the Geneva Convention, which lays down that penalties shall not be imposed on people coming from a territory where their life or freedom was threatened.

The jail term also sparked a barrage of criticism from NGOs and social workers who argue that the children’s best interest was not taken into account by the court, which could have opted for a suspended jail term.

A protest was also held outside the courts on Thursday.

The Office of the Commissioner for Children is among those calling on courts to rethink the decision. 

International human rights expert John Pace said the decision “seriously infringes” Malta’s international legal obligations and disregards the fundamental principle of “the best interests of the child” enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocols.

The women were arrested at the airport on July 26. They had been travelling from Greece to Belgium via Malta when they were stopped and found with false identity cards.