Poverty stalks stateless sons, daughters of Saudi men

Riyadh: There are more than 1,000 young men and women abroad who have been abandoned by their Saudi fathers and are leading a miserable life.

"They are living in the native places of their mothers in the Arab and East Asian countries without having the nationality of either their father or mother," said Abdullah Al Hamoud, chairman of Awasser, a Saudi charitable society that looks after Saudis abroad.

Al Hamoud also said there are tens of thousands of Saudi youths living with their mothers, who have been abandoned by their Saudi husbands.

"These young men and women are living in abject poverty without having proper education or health care. Their living conditions are miserable without having sufficient food, dresses or other basic necessities of life," he said.

Referring to the meagre fund of the society, he noted that Awasser gets 1 million Saudi riyals annually from the Ministry of Social Affairs in addition to Zakat, and donations from philanthropists.

"The ministry should increase its contribution to the society to at least 10 million riyals in order to support the society so that it can play a greater role in supporting these poor families, for which the society actually needs more than 50 million riyals," he said.

Lana Al Saleh, head of the women's wing of Awasser, said that at present the society is taking care of more than 556 Saudi families abroad.

"These included 210 families in Syria, 189 in Egypt, 87 in Morocco, 30 in Jordan, 16 in Lebanon, 11 in Kuwait, six in Bahrain and one in Qatar," she said adding that there are also some families in the Philippines, Belgium and the United States.

In a press statement, Al Saleh noted that Syria tops in the number of illegal marriages between Saudis and non-Saudis.

According to unofficial figures, there are 300 such children in Syria and 282 in Egypt.

"It is difficult to get the exact figures of such children in countries like Lebanon, Yemen, Morocco, Jordan, Bosnia and Herzegovia, Eritrea, Ethiopia and India," she said.