Court to hear psychotherapist’s report on refugee child in custody litigation

A court-appointed psychotherapist today testifies in the court of Judge Abigail Lofaro on the application of a prohibitory injunction against the departure of an Eritrean child to Switzerland with her biological parents.

The writ has been filed by a foster parent of the child, who claims the five-year-old girl should be kept in Malta until she has been given the appropriate psychological preparation to be reintegrated back into her family, which has subsidiary protection from the government.

The 35-year-old woman has cared for the child since the age of four months when she met her mother at the Hal Far open centre, but the fostering was a private understanding and not done within the framework of governmental fostering structures.

The woman filed the injunction on Thursday last week, as well as an application for the temporary custody for the child.

The biological parents are being resettled to Switzerland under a European relocation programme as part of a bilateral agreement with Malta, and they depart Wednesday afternoon.

Their lawyer Lara Dimitrijevic has questioned the timing of the woman's prohibitory injunction, saying she was aware of the impending departure for the past month.

"It is a huge opportunity for the Eritrean family, which has been through numerous interviews with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees to be relocated. They have decided they will either go as a family or none at all."

Speaking to MaltaToday, the plaintiff in the custody litigation says she is not seeking to keep the child to herself. "I only want that she be given the proper care during this traumatic transition. Allegations that I have tried to get the father of the child to sign adoption papers are completely unfounded."

She also said that approaching the court was a "last resort" as appeals to the UNHCR had gone unheard.

On their part, the Eritrean family has denied allegations of abuse made in open court by the plaintiff.

"In open court she declared that the mother locks up the children in a room but no evidence has been presented as to this claim," lawyer Lara Dimitrijevic said. "If the foster parent was really interested in safeguarding the child she would have taken any necessary action before. If she always had the best interests of the minor at heart, why didn't she file a report before? The timing of her court writ is impeccable."

But the litigation case has raised questions over the nature of the fostering agreement, which was done privately in what ostensibly amounts to a charitable act by the Maltese woman.

"It is not uncommon that families in the open centres allow Maltese people to foster their children. They are humble people who know that any form of help is welcome. But this family has always made it clear that they would never give up custody of their daughter," Dimitrijevic said.

"What started off as an act of kindness towards a very vulnerable family has now turned into an act of abuse."

On her part, the foster parent says she is angry at the way the judicial system has handled the case, claiming the child's needs are not being taken into consideration.

The child's biological mother filed an abduction report last Thursday after it transpired that the foster parent was unwilling to let the child go.

"I was taken to the police station in Sliema last Thursday, where I was questioned with the child for six hours together. The police inspector was not present, though he asked the child over the phone who she wanted to stay with. She originally said she wanted to stay with me," the foster parent told MaltaToday.

Dimitrijevic contests this assertion: "As stated in her court affidavit and in an interview to The Times, the child said she wanted to be with her real mother. When he mother found out about the prohibitory injunction, the only thing she could was file a police report because she had been trying to recover her daughter for weeks."

Originally, the foster parent agreed with the biological mother to look after the child on a full-time basis after having first started collecting the child for weekends from a crèche. "She was four months old at the time and since then has lived with me 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

She says she has never lied to the child about her natural parents or kept anything from her, but alleges they "showed little interest in her, spending little more than a staggered three months with her over the last five years."

While the foster parent also says she sent the child and her brother to St Michael's private school, Dimitrijevic insists that the Eritrean mother was "under the impression - as told to her by the foster parent and the headmistress - that her daughter was being schooled for free."

The foster parent also says she often took one of the child's brothers out too. "Whenever I took him back to the crèche it was always to tantrums and to him saying he wants to stay with me," she told MaltaToday.

"As I couldn't look after two children I helped out by sending him to school and paying for everything, though he went home at the end of the day. At Christmas time I'd have the entire family over for lunch and have presents for everyone. I gave the family TVs, carpets, groceries and whatever else they needed. At this point in time the family is denying any of this ever occurred and that I abducted their child, however I have friends and family who can vouch for me."

The foster parent claims she was informed of the resettlement of the family on 6 April, and that the father even agreed to stay with her and the child before joining his family in Switzerland.

Things changed when the family decided they would leave altogether, but the foster parent insists the child has been attached to her for the past two weeks, unwilling to leave her side. "One evening she spent the night at my mother's. When she asked my mother where I was she told her she had fallen asleep and I didn't want to disturb her so I left her there for the night and would be by to pick her up in the morning. Her reply was heartbreaking. She said that in that case she wouldn't go to sleep anymore so that I wouldn't leave her."