Italy dispatches emissary to help wife and daughter of Kazakh dissident return to Europe

The Italian Foreign Ministry says it has dispatched an emissary to help the wife and young daughter of a Kazakh dissident return to Europe after they were improperly expelled from Italy.

Foreign Minister Emma Bonino said in a statement Tuesday that the Italian Embassy in Kazakhstan would continue to follow the case "step by step" until the mother and daughter leave the country. Kazakh authorities have granted them freedom to travel.

The botched expulsions of Alma Shalabayeva and her 6-year-old daughter fueled tensions in Italy's fragile government this summer. Italy's premier announced a probe and told Parliament the deportations shouldn't have been ordered. Dissident Mukhtar Ablyazov, meanwhile, is missing.

The mother and daughter had been living in Italy since September 2012.