Dubai: A total of 33 unmarried mothers and their 35 children are in Al Aweer Central Jail after taking advantage of the recent amnesty.
The women said they had been in jail for several months and were still waiting for their children’s documents to be processed in order to leave.
Some of the mothers are illegal residents, some have residency visas while others are registered as absconders.
Most of them have one child each and they were arrested in different emirates. They said they had been charged with adultery, having sex outside marriage and having illegitimate children.
“After we surrendered to the residency department in Dubai we got arrested and sent to the police station located in the areas where we had committed the adultery. After that we were sent to the public prosecutor who asked us about the father and interrogated us with questions, such as where we had sex and if we were paid to have sex,” a mother said.
The women said they and their children were given DNA tests.
“After the results they sent all of us to Al Aweer Central Jail,” one mother said.
“We have been in jail for several months with our children, waiting either to be sentenced and also waiting for our children’s documents to be issued and for outpasses and air tickets,” a mother told Gulf News over the phone from her cell.
“We have been here since December. We thought that by surrendering ourselves to the residency department we could help our children have a proper life in their home country but we just landed in jail,” said one of the women.
The mothers said when they approached the amnesty centres during the government amnesty they thought they would be able to leave immediately and be issued outpasses for themselves and their children but instead the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs reported them to the police. Some of the mother’s children are as old as ten.
Some of the women who have already been sentenced by the court said they were waiting for documents to be processed for their children and had no money for air tickets.
Most of them gave birth at home. “We want our documents to be processed quickly,” said one mother.
The mothers said it was taking too long for their outpasses and children’s documents to be issued.
They urged their consulates and the authorities here to speed up the process.
“We need tickets to go home. Our children are the ones suffering inside the prison because of what we did,” a mother said.
“Most of the mothers have been sentenced. Only five have not yet been sentenced,” police told Gulf News.
