‘It hurts to see my kids not go to school’
Bangladeshi woman unable to arrange documents for young daughter and son
ABangladeshi woman said her two children have never been to school as the family has been unable to get them Bangladeshi passports or UAE visas.
Janat Alferdoos, 36, told Gulf News her daughter Mariam, 10, and son Masood, 6, have not been given birth certificates by Al Qasimi Hospital in Sharjah, as the couple owes the hospital around Dh22,000 in charges for her two deliveries.
Alferdoos said a UAE birth certificate is required by the Bangladeshi mission in the UAE to issue a passport.
‘Complicated situation’
“Our situation is much more complicated than that. A series of hardships have befallen us. My husband and I don’t have a passport or visa yet. I lost my first son Mohammad to cancer in 2010, my husband and father both lost their jobs in 2012, and I lost my mother to kidney failure in 2017,” Alferdoos said. “But what hurts me the most is to see my children sit at home and not go to school like other kids. I’ve homeschooled them, but I want a better future for them.”
Alferdoos delivered her fourth child — a boy — on October 18 at a private hospital in Ajman. Her brother said the hospital waived off half of the delivery charges, meaning he only had to pay around Dh5,300.
Alferdoos, who came to the UAE around 33 years ago at the age of three, went to school in Umm Al Quwain and moved to Sharjah in 2005, when she married a Bangladeshi mechanical engineer.
The couple had their first child Mohammad, who succumbed to cancer in 2010 at age five. “In 2008, Mariam was born but my husband couldn’t afford the Dh5,000 or so for the delivery, because we were heavily in debt. In 2012, he lost his job at an auto workshop as the sponsor was asking around Dh15,000 to renew the work visa. When he couldn’t pay, he was let go,” Alferdoos said.
Later in 2012, their third child Masood was born. “Because of a complication, the delivery charges were around Dh17,000. We didn’t have the money, or visa, or birth certificate — what could we do?”
Alferdoos said.
Earlier this year, the couple availed of the UAE amnesty for illegal residents, in which their fines for staying in the UAE without a visa were waived. Alferdoos said the couple expect to get their new passport today.
She added that a grocery store owner in Umm Al Quwain had offered her husband a business opportunity if he invests around Dh19,000.
The couple did not approach the consulate earlier because they were illegal residents themselves, without a valid UAE visa, at the time. “I was scared that we would be caught and deported,” she added.