Former Irish president Mary Robinson has paid a visit to the Princess Sheikha Latifa in Dubai who has not been seen in public since March

A stepmother of the “runaway princess” paid for the flight that brought Mary Robinson, the former Irish president, to Dubai where she pronounced that Princess Sheikha Latifa was “in the loving care” of her family.

Robinson posed for photographs alongside the princess, who had not been seen in public since March, that were later released to the media in an apparent attempt to prove she was not being held against her will.

Human rights groups described Robinson, the former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, as a “willing pawn” for the family that rules the United Arab Emirates (UAE), after she told BBC Radio 4 last week that Princess Sheikha Latifa, one of the daughters of Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, was