Syrian mother takes legal action over children's exclusion from school due to lack of documentation

A Syrian mother has filed a legal claim against the Ministry for Education, arguing that her two children are being denied their right to education after Maltese authorities refused to enrol them in school due to missing documentation.

The woman, who arrived in Malta in 2021 with two of her three children, later gave birth to her third child while residing in the country. Her two older children - a six-year-old girl and a five-year-old boy - are of compulsory school age under Maltese law, which requires children between the ages of five and sixteen to attend school.

In her legal application, the woman recounts how she was only nine years old when the civil war in Syria began. During that time, she met her husband, a Syrian national who was born in Malta. The family fled the war in 2019, escaping from Turkey to Greece.

While in Greece, the family applied for protection, but the woman says they never received any outcome on their application. They were placed in a refugee camp alongside four other families and found themselves living in unsafe and threatening conditions.

While pregnant with her third child, her husband disappeared. Left on her own, she decided to continue the journey with her children and eventually arrived in Malta in 2021.

Upon arrival, the woman applied for asylum for herself and her children, but her application was denied on the basis that she had already been granted protection in Greece.

Maltese authorities then initiated a "take-back" request under EU asylum rules, asking Greece to take responsibility for the family. However, Greek authorities rejected the request, stating that the family were already beneficiaries of protection and were not in need of asylum.

In the meantime, the woman attempted to enrol her children in school through the support of aditus Foundation.

However, the Migrant Learners’ Unit informed her that her application was incomplete, citing the absence of key documents such as a residence permit, identity card, or the blue paper. Since the woman was not granted protection in Malta, she and her children lack any official identification documentation.

The foundation’s lawyer explained that the woman has no way of obtaining these documents given her legal status, but was nevertheless told that without them, her children could not be admitted to school. Had they been successfully enrolled, the children would have started Year 1 and Year 2 respectively during this academic year.

On 19 September 2024, the woman’s lawyers sent a letter to the Minister for Education outlining the issue.

The letter went unanswered. As a result, the woman has now filed a human rights case, arguing that the internal policy of the Migrant Learners’ Unit - requiring proof of residency before enrolling migrant children - is breaching her children’s right to education.

She is suing the ministry for violating her children’s fundamental rights and is seeking an effective remedy and compensation for the harm caused.

The case was filed earlier this week by lawyers Eve Borg Costanzi and Matthew Cutajar from the Public Interest Litigation Network, with support from aditus Foundation.