UPDATED - A three-year-old Eritrean boy who lost his mother in a car accident in Libya was reunited with his father at Malta airport this afternoon.

Tages Gebregzabher smiled broadly, hugged his son Abiel and kissed him three times as soon as he arrived on a flight from Tripoli.

It was the first time he had seen him in over two years, but last week, through the Church's Migrants' Commission, he made an appeal to the government to allow the toddler to come to Malta.

Special permission was granted immediately. 

A government spokesman said the Home Affairs Ministry prepared the necessary paperwork last Friday after the Foreign Ministry located the child and made the logistical arrangements for him to be brought to Malta.

Mr Gebregzabher and commission director Mgr Philip Calleja both thanked the government and the officials responsible for making the reunification possible.

Mgr Calleja said the commission was making arrangements for the care of the boy.

Meanwhile, Malta will also be involved in facilitating the transfer of another child, who found herself in a similar situation as Abiel.

The government spokesman confirmed that Malta had received a request from another country to help in transferring a girl whose surviving parent lived elsewhere.

“We are making ourselves available to help in situations like these,” he said.