Dubai
Dubai Police have helped reunite an Emirati mother and her children after she left them in a one-bedroom flat with no food.
Desperate and penniless, the mother was desperate and called 999, threatening to abandon her children because her ex-husband refused to help her raise the children and pay alimony, Dubai Police said on Sunday.
Gulf News met the Emirati mother Ebtisam, 36, who left her four children aged 8-13 inside their home in Al Warqa area.
“I was confused and lost and I couldn’t provide money for my children’s needs. I feel sorry and terrible for what I did but I had no other options just to call Dubai Police asking for help,” the Emirati mother told Gulf News inside Al Rashidiya police station.
“I was living with my children for seven years without money of my ex-husband as he was unemployed. I couldn’t even find a job and I sought police help because it was my last hope,” Ebtisam said.
Brigadier Saeed Hamad Bin Sulaiman, Director of Al Rashidiya Police Station, said the children were staying in the country illegally. The father, an Arab expat, had failed to renew the residence visa of his children.
“She called police saying that she left her four children inside a flat in Al Warqa and then closed her phone. She claimed that she doesn’t have a job and her Arab ex-husband not paying her money. Her children were staying illegally in the country because the father didn’t renew their residency,” Brig Bin Sulaiman said.
The woman closed her phone and went to a friend’s, leaving the children in a one-bedroom house — there was no food inside the flat.
“The house was old and even rain leaked into the house. We put the children in a two-bedroom flat and renewed the residency of the children and found a decent job for the mother so she could be reunited with her children.”
However, Reem Al Ameri, from the victim support programme in Dubai Police said that it was hard for them to help.
“The children were alone without adults and the mother closed her phone. We contacted their 19-year-old sister from another man, and convinced her to take care of the children until we can find another place for them,” Al Ameri told Gulf News.
Dubai Police sat with the mother later and convinced her to return to her children after moving them to a flat with the help of the Community Development Ministry.
“We helped her with a flat and the community development ministry provided a monthly allowance to support her children. She reached a dead end as she lived with her children without support for seven years,” Al Ameri said.
The mother thanked Dubai Police for their support and for their help in finding a solution to her problem, “I didn’t abandon my children until I reached a dead end. It was a big responsibility to raise the children on my own without help. I asked for help from many people but my problem wasn’t solved. I thank Dubai Police for what they did and thus helped me to return to a decent life with my children,” Ebtisam told Gulf News.
