Malta: Unborn Baby Trafficking

I posted about the Philippines side of the equation here, and now here is the Malta side of it:

The police, Department for Social Welfare Standards and Aġenzija Appoġġ are looking into the case of unborn child trafficking reported in the international media in the past days, the Education, Employment and Family Ministry said yesterday.

Their reaction came after this newspaper yesterday reported that an expectant Filipino mother was reportedly sponsored to come to Malta with the intent of having her baby adopted. This is considered to be a form of human trafficking and is understood to have been reported by Maltese authorities.

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The ministry said that when the Department for Social Welfare Standards and Aġenzija Appoġġ were informed about the case, they immediately reported it to the ministry and the police for investigation.

Police action was taken against the woman for giving false information in an official document that enabled her to enter Malta.

When this case came to light, the DSWS immediately alerted its counterpart in the Philippines about the case.

The DSWS, as the local central authority, is responsible to regulate inter-country adoptions. Malta has signed and ratified the convention on the protection of children and cooperation in respect of inter-country adoptions.

The Ministry noted that the convention makes it clear that for a child to be adopted in a foreign country, the sending country, in this case the Philippines, has to approve the adoption. Discussions on this particular adoption are still in progress.