A family  from the Ivory Coast separated while attempting to get to Europe from Libya has been reunited after two years apart, with the father meeting his two-year-old daughter for the first time last week.

Gnagbo Maxime Ani and his pregnant wife Ester Mohiri Zepre were escaping from Libya on April 2, 2015 when they became separated.

As Ms Zepre was due to give birth soon, she was airlifted and taken to Mater Dei while her husband was taken to Italy where he then made his way to France.

Giving birth the following month, Ms Zepre at first could not trace her husband and tried tirelessly to seek information about his whereabouts.

Some months later, Ms Zepre succeeded in locating her husband but it was impossible for him to come over to Malta to meet his daughter Julie as he had not yet been granted refugee status. It was only last March that Mr Ani received such a status which also made it possible for him to apply for both his wife and young daughter to relocate to Grenoble in France.

Ms Zepre said that while Malta was a beautiful country which had been very welcoming, being away from her husband for such a long period of time was hard. She now looked forward to completing her move to France so that her family could be together again