A 32-year-old African was reunited with her four-year-old daughter on Monday after sending her to Europe aboard a migrant boat last year, allegedly to save her from female genital mutilation in her homeland.
Zanabou Camara, from Ivory Coast, had a tearful reunion with her daughter Oumoh at Palermo airport, where she arrived on a flight from Tunisia.
Camara described her reunion with Oumoh as "a miracle" and said she would have done anything to get her daughter back.
"I would have gone to the end of the earth to find my daughter. Being without her caused me enormous suffering," Camara told reporters.
"It is a miracle to see her again," Camara said, describing how she entrusted Oumoh to friend who crossed the Mediterranean with the child aboard a migrant boat from Tunisia to Lampedusa.
Camara made the tough decision because Oumoh was at risk of being infibulated in Ivory Coast, along with her 12-year-old cousin, she said.
Bureacratic delays left Camara stranded in Tunisia for five months, during which time she said she only had contact with Oumoh a few times on Skype.
Maria Volpe, the police officer who liaised with the Ivorian embassy to obtain Camara's visa, and has had responsibility for Oumoh since her arrival in Italy, said the reunion was "the biggest gift I could ever have".
Camara will be granted formal custody of Oumoh when their relationship is confirmed by a DNA test.
She and Oumoh will meanwhile be assisted by a psychologist and workers from a Catholic charity and given shelter in the same community in Palermo where Oumoh has been living since her arrival from Lampedusa.
