Of child brides, Sixth Formers and the Army

The late teens are difficult years to go through without the right guidance so to have two issues related to this age group highlighted in the news this week is worth writing about

“It’s not its presence in Malta that shocks me, but the lack of foresight of the authorities who fail to notice the red flags.”

Acasual mention of child brides in Malta in a Facebook post made the rounds because of its news value, at least to those who were oblivious of this local reality. My knowledge of this stems from a case of forced marriage I encountered as a Child Advocate. My reaction to the news was an unimpressed “Bonġu, Malta”.

It’s not its presence in Malta that shocks me, but the lack of foresight of the authorities who fail to notice the red flags. This kind of cultural phenomenon is so easy to pin down, and intelligence gathering so straightforward, just follow the sweet trail like Hansel and Gretel. Ask the professionals who work in the field of cultural mediation and migrants. It is so easy to detect and anticipate. Is there a unit dedicated to this within policing? Would community police officers, for instance, know how to detect the signs in their interaction with cultural minorities? Is anyone keeping tabs as police Crime Prevention Unit would, considering that the criminal background of offenders is already kept by the Police Records Office? Isn’t the use of such personal data exempted from the clutches of the GDPR since it falls within the remit of security of the country?

How about having a multi-discipline team that perhaps involves the Children’s Commissariat, Education Ministry, FSWS and the local religious and cultural representatives that can handle this? I’d include Identity Malta, as there is a section of migrants who overstay their visit to Malta from countries such as Greece, and they would not be documented. Our system would not pick up their existence, so imagine if a young woman refuses marriage and suddenly disappears because of an honour killing? Who would know about her existence? Remember that if a brawl of around 25 men can be organised in an instant in broad daylight, in the middle of a busy place such as Ħamrun or Marsalforn in Gozo, how easy it could be to organise the disappearance of minors.

Remember that the law in Chapter 602 protects all children in Malta, all of them, not just Maltese citizens.

The news that Sixth Formers can attend courses on a parttime basis because of an employment commitment comes with a caveat. It’s the word “emancipated”, which the minister rightly referred to, but the media seem to have not bothered to explore. Minister Caruana stopped short of explaining it, or perhaps the PR machine didn’t think it was important to expand on it, which is a pity.

Emancipation is a legal concept and one attached to commercial law. It grants the minor the right to trade. There’s a procedure that has to be filed before the Court asking for such. So the Sixth Former

has to be legally emancipated first to attend on a parttime basis. It’s a good start, but I would suggest expanding on it because the social situation is what it is – separated parents, legally or de facto, won’t necessarily cope with the maintenance granted until their children are 23 years of age and are in fulltime education.

Covid has exacerbated this, increasing precarity, and the State needs to cater for this and in so doing, address the drop-out rate of school-leavers. Let’s use this experience to give minors a wellsupported start in life.

One final note: the Army, and its deployment in situations of large-scale brawls. I am assuming that the speakers who suggested such an intervention already knew that this can be done, given the police powers that the Army has at law. It can organise road checks and assist the police with arrests, for example.

It’s not the first time that there were joint patrols between the police and the AFM. It’s a matter of leadership choice and a decision that needs to be taken on the spot, there and then, without hesitation. The question therefore should be this: is there a protocol in place between the police and armed forces that gets triggered in such situations? It’s an issue of public order that is serious enough to warrant attention especially since there seems to be a pattern in place – it has not been a one-off experience and in the Gozitan case, a person died from life-threatening injuries.

Once again, the Army-Police cooperation in such situations can be anticipated should one follow the red flags. Whether it’s a police crime prevention team or not that studies the data and makes the most of it, this week’s news made it clear that action has to be taken.