CAIRO: On Tuesday, the Egyptian foreign ministry reported it had secured the release of four children who had been arrested the by the Libyan authorities last week after they had accidentally crossed into the neighboring country's water. It was a relief to the families, a ministry spokesman said. “We are pleased that the children have been returned and nothing serious happened to them. It was an unfortunate incident, but one we hope will be avoided in the near future,” a ministry official said. The young kids between 9- and 14-years-old had been on an Egyptian fishing boat that accidentally entered Libya's territory and were fishing without a proper permit. Libyan officials arrested them on March 30. The Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Mohamed Abdel-Hakim said that the Egyptian consulate in Benghazi was completing all necessary paperwork and the children would be back home with their families by Wednesday morning. Abdel-Hakim also took the opportunity to warn Egyptians living in Italy against mistreating their children. He said that Italian authorities had reported an increase in the number of cases of child abuse among Egyptian families there, and noted that Italian child-protection services had recently taken custody of “a number” of Egyptian children. BM
