Children of the expat family facing imminent deportation are frantically trying to be deported to their home country along with their father.

A family of six is in the eye of a storm for violating the Kingdom’s labor and residency laws.
Mohammed Abdulaziz, whose wife and six children have been thrown out of their home due to nonpayment of rents, is being detained in the deportation center in Riyadh for having no legal documents or source of income.

The family is now desperately hoping to be deported along with Abdulaziz. To add to their woes, the landlord ordered their eviction after having given them enough time to clear their dues, forcing them on to the streets.

Abdulaziz, an Indian expatriate hailing from Hyderabad, arrived in the Kingdom to work with a pharmaceutical company about 19 years ago. He was joined later by his wife and two children in Riyadh. However, in 2000, he had a dispute with his employer following which he left his job and began doing menial work. He also neglected to renew his Iqama for the next 14 years of his stay in the Kingdom, family sources told Arab News.

Abdulaziz was apprehended following a routine inspection by security forces in the Batha area in Riyadh and taken to the deportation center where he has been lodged for the past four months. His wife and six children also want to be deported to India along with him but complications have arisen in processing their case as they have no legal documents.

Abdulaziz was not only living illegally in the Kingdom but also fathered four more children who all have no legal status including valid iqamas or birth certificates.

The procedures of obtaining birth certificates are fraught with difficulty with Saudi authorities first issuing the birth certificates (which they will not do without a valid iqama), then get them attested by Indian consular services and finally have them approved by the ministries of both the host country and the country of origin.

“As we have no money or papers to enroll our children in regular schools, I taught them the Qur’an at home to enable them to become Hafiz-e-Qur’an (learn the Qur’an by heart). My elder sons, Hadi
Mohammed and Hani Mohammed, have memorized half the Qur’an, so far,” Anisa Begum, the mother of the children told Arab News over the phone. She said, “We planned to leave the Kingdom during the grace period but due to the lack of documents, we were unable to do so.”

She said that her husband had opted to continue to live illegally in the Kingdom owing to the poor family conditions back home in India.

An interesting twist to the story is that Mohammed Abdulaziz’s sponsor is a kind hearted person and hasn’t declared him as Huroob (absconder) although Abdulaziz has not been in touch with him for over a decade.

The Indian community in the Kingdom has also come forward to ease the family’s plight.

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