Filipina allowed to live with family

On Wednesday, Lara Lizl Asenit was arrested and taken into detention. She has spent the past days living at Appogg. Inspector Louise Calleja said that the woman was not being held under arrest.

Appogg said that her case falls under the Hague Convention on adoptions, to which the Philippines is a signatory. The family was taking her child through a “private adoption”, which is not allowed under the convention. She was therefore taken to a safe place until it could be ascertained whether the adoption was legal or not.

Magistrate Audrey Demicoli heard her laywer Robert Montalto explain that she arrived in Malta on March 18 this year, and that her visa was valid until June 25. He said that her freedom was being restricted, and the magistrate agreed that she could not be held against her will.

Her baby was born on May 19.