‘Help my lost girl home from Yemen’
A MUM has started an online fundraising page to get her daughter home to Cardiff from war-torn Yemen.
Jackie Morgan’s three daughters – Rahannah, Nadia and Safia – were taken from her in 1986 when her thenhusband Sadek Saleh fled 4,000 miles to the Middle East with their daughters.
She spent years searching for them, but didn’t speak to her daughters again for 15 years, when they managed to get in contact with her.
Their father had told the daughters their mother was dead, but they tried to contact her anyway.
One of Jackie’s daughters sadly died in childbirth, and she has lost contact with another daughter. But Safia, who is now a mum of four, is desperate to return to her mother.
She’s currently living just outside the Yemeni town of Hodeidah, which is being bombed by Saudi Arabian war planes as they battle the Houthi rebels who took over much of the country.
More than 9,245 people have been killed and 52,800 injured in the country since March 2015, according to the UN.
Safia is a British citizen but has been told by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office that there is no evacuation procedure for British citizens in Yemen.
Now a crowdfunding page has been set up to pay the £6,000 for flights back to Cardiff.
Jackie, from Ely, said: “I need to get Safia out. She’s a British citizen but the Foreign Office have said they’re unable to do anything to help her. The only way for Safia to come home is by raising the money to pay for her flights.
“Getting out of Yemen is very difficult. The flights are really expensive and I don’t have the money to pay for them. I need some people to help me.
“This is every mother’s worst nightmare. My child is living in a war zone and just wants to come home. I’ve lost her once and don’t want to lose her for good. Please help me.”
Neil McEvoy AM, who helped set up the fundraiser and whose grandfather is from the Yemen, said: “It’s really appalling the Foreign Office won’t do anything to help Safia. I like to think that the one thing you can rely on the British government to do is try to get you out of a war zone. But they won’t.
“That means it’s up to the community to rally together and help Jackie and Safia. It’s really hard to get out of Yemen. The flights are very irregular and expensive. You just get the call and then you have to leave immediately for the airport. Then you can fly to Egypt and get a flight to the UK. Jackie and Safia have been through so much and I really hope they can be reunited.”
An FCO spokesman said: “We appreciate the current situation is deeply distressing for Ms Morgan. However, we continue to advise against all travel to Yemen and are unable to provide any form of assisted departure to British or dual nationals in Yemen.”
■ To donate, visit crowdfunder. co.uk/cardiff-girl-trapped-in-yemen
■ Neil McEvoy letter: pages 46-47