Manama: The Saudi family struggling to help the Iraq-born daughter and son of their deceased son to enter Saudi Arabia said they were still waiting for the required travel documents.
“My father, an old man, is still in Jordan waiting for the papers that will enable Jannat and Mohammad to come home,” Hayfa Mohammad Al Masawi said. “He had been asked to present the documents that prove that my brother Mazen did get married with an Iraqi woman and that the two children were theirs. He handed the document and he is now waiting for the response,” she told local Arabic daily Al Sharq.
A faster solution to the dilemma would be to run a DNA test and avoid all the delays caused due to red tape, she said.
Jannat and Mohammad were born in Iraq to Mazen Al Masawi, a Saudi man who was executed in the summer by Iraqi authorities, and an Iraqi mother who died two months after giving birth to her son. The children stayed with their maternal grandmother in Iraq but when their father was executed in August, the family in Saudi Arabia said they wanted them to come home.
“The maternal grandmother took Jannat and Mohammad from Iraq to Jordan where she met the late Mazen’s relatives,” said Thamer Al Bulaihad, from a Saudi legal consultancy office. “The Saudi family took custody of the two children and contacted their embassy in Amman to apply for the passports that will allow them to enter Saudi Arabia.
No evidence
However, Hamad Al Hajiri, the deputy head of mission, said that the Saudi family did not have any evidence that Jannat and Mohammad were Al Masawi’s children. “There are no official documents [proving that] they are his children,” he said. “The mother has died and there is no evidence that proves that the marriage was as per the rules,” he said.
Hayfa suggested a DNA test to speed up the matter. “We do pray for a prompt solution. My father is going through very difficult times. He has just lost his son and he is now unable to reunite his two grandchildren with their family,” she said.
