Civil court orders Syrian family off Malta

Judge Anna Felice today threw out a request by four Syrians to stop a removal order, after different courts ruled that their request was unfounded.

In 2011, Ghasan Kaseb, a Syrian man who was married to a Maltese woman and acquired Maltese citizenship, was refused a permit for his four children from a previous marriage to be able to live permanently in Malta.

The case was considered by the Constitutional Court after the man filed an application saying that the decision by the Department for Citizenship and Expatriates refusing a permit to his children, was discriminatory.

Kaseb had married a Maltese woman and obtained Maltese citizenship. His marriage broke up in 2002 and his four children from a previous marriage to a Syrian woman had by then come to live in Malta.

Subsequently, the four requested the court to impede the Expatriates Principal from carrying out the removal order in their regard.

The four claimed such an order would violate their right to a private family life. Furthermore the complainants said that a removal order against them would be a form of discrimination based on their nationalities.

They also claimed that if the removal order is applied, this would deny them their right to a fair trial as they would be forced to leave the island.

Madam Justice Anna Felice decreed that as previous courts, including the Constitutional Court, had already decided, the request of the complainants was unfounded, and no proof was exhibited which could make the court reach a different conclusion.