One in five babies born in Malta has a parent of unknown origin

One in five babies born in Malta last year had a parent of “unknown” nationality, official figures show. A total 1,571 babies were born to a parent of unknown nationality in 2016, up nearly 200 per cent over figures from 10 years ago. The phenomenon has been steadily on the rise for the past decade, in fact some 265 such babies had already been born in the opening weeks of this year, almost as much as the figure for the entire year in 2006. Questions sent to the authorities yesterday afternoon were not replied to by the time of writing, but a former midwife-turned-social worker told Times of Malta that the reasons behind the trend were varied. “When I was still at hospital, we had cases where the nationality of the father was being contested by the authorities, for instance in the case of babies born to people who were considered ‘stateless’. Others were born to migrant fathers or foreign nationals who then moved from the island before the baby was even born, leaving the mothers to raise the babies and often unsure of the nationality of the father,” she said. The figures tabled in Parliament by Justice Minister Owen Bonnici earlier this week show that while there has been an...