Stranded Children

Living in the Persian Gulf among oil-rich neighbours, seeing its wealth being invested in luxurious shopping malls, stunning leisure resorts, huge villas, and modern universities one would automatically expect its society to have developed at the same pace as its modern 21st Century look. However, this is quite illogical for any too rapidly changing society with a different history as that from the West, as certain issues may show.


One of these issues is that of “stranded” children. Actually, these poor little persons do not “really” exist, although they were born to this part of the world. They are the children of mostly poor labourers who conceived a child out of wedlock while they were working for little money without being able to enjoy the prosperity of the country they are living in. They come here for many years on end and don’t have the means nor the possibility and sometimes also not the intention to live in a legal relationship. Thus, their children will not receive any kind of legal papers. They don’t even have a birth certificate because their parents are too frightened to be discovered out of fear to be imprisoned and then deported. If this happens the result would be a dilemma as they would have (and sometimes even want) to leave their children behind. Without a birth certificate or legal papers these children would not be allowed to travel with their parents. While their parents return to their home country and often get married without revealing their illegitimate child to their new spouse, these children are left to the mercy of some friends back in the Gulf and the authorities.


In Islam these children are not to blame nor do they carry any sin, of course, but reality is that they carry all the burden of their parents’ actions and ignorance. The authorities may try their best to deal with this issue, but it takes a long time to change the law accordingly, because many people have difficulties in overcoming the traditional assumption that what is not to be cannot be. According to their religious views illegitimate children are the result of an immoral relationship so this is an issue which is often ignored, rather than dealt with in an urgent manner.


Certainly, there are laws and regulations for punishing such parents according to Islamic or state law that is based on religious views, but these children remain stranded and often abandoned by their own parents. When reading their sad stories one imagines a different, less prosperous place than their rich Gulf birth country. But then again, as sad as their stories may sound, they might have a better chance being taken in by someone over here, than going back to the home of their poverty stricken parents, where they might not be welcomed. For their sake let’s hope that this is not only another disadvantageous effect of global migration but also a twist of fate. Who knows?