Infant smuggling claim

Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has assured human rights group Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International of its cooperation in investigating its claim that 100 infants were kidnapped from Pakistan and smuggled to Malta, the trust said.

The trust had requested the Maltese government to help it search for the children, allegedly abducted or illegally taken from Pakistan and smuggled to Malta in the last three years.

The government has denied the allegations and insists that 39 infants were brought here legally.

Social Policy Minister Lawrence Gonzi says that all children brought from Pakistan over the past 15 years or so had the proper documentation and visas issued by Pakistan and verified by Maltese courts.

The trust recently said it had also been assured by the government that the matter had been forwarded to the police in Malta for further investigation.

The trust has set up a three-member committee to visit Malta with the intention of retrieving the babies and taking them back to Pakistan.