The first hub for victims of domestic violence and gender-based violence began operating. The regional center, located in Santa Lucia, is operating twenty-four hours a day, all year round. The center will be offering various professional support and assistance services from professionals, members of the police force and workers trained in this field and from various entities in order to help and provide service and support to the victims of the domestic violence.
The establishment of this first hub took place after the Police Force established the Gender Based and Domestic Violence Unit within it back in November 2020. This unit is made up of trained officers, together with other professionals who provide service to victims of domestic violence and gender-based violence. This hub offers a better and more humane environment than the one provided inside the Floriana Depot, and is the first of its kind. The hub operates daily with a continuous presence of the Police Force, risk-assessors and other professionals. While this hub is located in the southern part of the country, the second hub is expected to open in the northern part of the country.
During a visit to the center of Saint Lucia, the Minister for the Interior, Security, Reforms and Equality Byron Camilleri and the Parliamentary Secretary for Reforms and Equality Rebecca Buttigieg, together with Police Commissioner Angelo Gafà, were given information about the procedures used in the case of a report of domestic violence.
Present were activists in the sector, including Prof. Marceline Naudi, together with other professionals in these equally sensitive fields. They could also see how the center offers a much more suitable environment and strict privacy for victims so much so that it is also equipped with equipment where the victim can give her testimony away from the presence of the aggressor. Minister Camilleri said that in the last three years there has been work focused on victims of domestic violence so much so that apart from tripling the human resources in the domestic violence and gender-based violence section of the Police Force, work was done with other stakeholders to open the first hub for victims of domestic violence.
Parliamentary Secretary Rebecca Buttigieg said that the problem of domestic violence requires collective action from various entities. She added that this hub is an example of the synergy that exists between the Commissioner on Gender-Based Violence and Domestic Violence, the police and the foundation for social welfare services among others. She said that in the fight against domestic violence, a healing work is being done by the inter-ministerial committee especially in carrying out the measures listed in the national strategy against domestic violence which was launched last year.
Police Commissioner Angelo Gafà referred to the professional and empathetic quality of the service that the body is giving to victims of domestic violence so much so that in recent years there has been an increase in the number of reports of abuse that it shows that awareness about this social scourge is growing.
The lecturer at the University of Malta Prof. Marceline Naudi, who is also an activist in the fields of equality and against violence against women, praised the new environment in the hub especially the fact that there will be a policeman and a risk-assessor twenty four hours every day all year round. She said that she looks forward to seeing this first hub of its kind in our country operating.
Apart from this new hub, victims of domestic violence can still go and make a report to the domestic violence and gender-based violence section at the Police Headquarters. Here too there are professionals and social workers who work side by side with police specially trained in this field. This section investigates every case of domestic violence and gives information to the victims what assistance services exist for them according to the particular case. This is until the new hub in the North of the country is concluded. The center is located at 2 Dawret it-Torri, Santa Lucia.
