Dubai: A human trafficking operation was foiled at Dubai Airport, thanks to the alertness of Emirates employees, Dubai Police said.

Four Chinese children arrived at Dubai Airport and were heading to a European country with a man and a woman who claimed to be their parents, according to Colonel Mohammad Al Murr, Director of Dubai Police's Human Rights Department.

Emirates airlines employees at the airport transit hall suspected the passengers' identities and informed the police. The alleged family's passports were taken to the forensic laboratory of Dubai Police, where it was found that the passports were forged, Col. Al Murr told Gulf News.

DNA tests

Results of DNA tests carried out on the six passengers showed that the two adults were not the children's parents, and the children were not related, and their ages were 11, 13, 15 and 16.

"The alleged father confessed that he was given $2,000 per child to take the children from their home country and deliver them in a European country, claiming that he thought the people receiving them in the European country were their family," Col. Al Murr said. On the purpose of taking the children, Col. Al Murr said the children were being trafficked, which meant they would be exploited.

"We do not know for sure what they were going to do with them because we caught them before they arrived at their final destination, but they could have been used in human organ trade," he said.

The children told interrogators that they were from China, while the forged passports belonged to another country. The children, who were temporarily homed at the Dubai Foundation for Women and Children, were recently handed over to their embassy, which will take them home.

Col. Al Murr said the children were not kidnapped from their families.

"The children, who do not know who their parents are, were living with foster families and were told by these families that they were travelling to Europe and were instructed to call the man and woman accompanying them on the trip father and mother," he said.

One of the children was living with his grandmother until he was taken by the gang, Col. Al Murr added.