Malta denies officials' involvement in human trafficking

VALLETTA, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Malta's government on Saturday denied local media reports claiming involvement of officials in facilitating the smuggling the allegedly Europe-wide operation.

The government issued a statement to deny Times of Malta's report, which is entitled "Maltese authorities may have helped traffickers".

It said that after weeks of police investigations with the assistance of Identity Malta, which uncovered this case of human trafficking, the government can confirm there were no public officials involved.

It is to be noted that Ukrainian nationals do not need a visa to travel to Malta and therefore they did not need any help from local authorities to conduct their illegal activities.

"The results obtained in this investigation show that Maltese authorities are functioning well and responding in a timely manner to any abuse of the system," the government said in the statement. Enditem