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A30 world news
Diamars 14 December 2021

After UAE law change, out-of-wedlock babies still in shadows

think I’d have the strength to Some women even yearn for law demands that parents
get through.” the previous punishment, marry or acquire travel docu-
typically one-year detention ments and other paperwork
Star gave only her first name and deportation. While ter- to prove their children’s
for fear of reprisals. She and rifying, it at least guaranteed identities, without detailing
six other unmarried women, a flight home and identity how.
most of them Filipinas, de- documents for their children.
scribed their legal battles to That has stoked panic among
The Associated Press. “It has only gotten harder unmarried mothers who fear
since the law changed,” said further punishment.
Before last year’s law change, 25-year-old mother Sitte
(AP) — Over a dozen un- At the same time, the law several had given birth at Honey. “They won’t take you Last year, as lawyers scram-
married women huddled criminalizes women lacking hospitals, where health au- to jail and they don’t want bled to understand the
in a jail cell south of Dubai such documents. thorities denied them birth you to give birth,” she added, opaque legal code, women
last year, locked up for certificates and called the noting abortion is also for- like Star walked out of jail
the crime of giving birth, Although unwed mothers no police. Others withdrew bidden. “We’re stuck.” across the country. Condi-
when a guard entered and longer face jail after the UAE to their shared apartments, tions at the facilities varied
declared them free. legalized premarital sex in scared and alone, to have Dirar Belhoul Al Falasi, a and in some, mothers were
November 2020, they now their babies. member of the UAE’s advi- separated from their chil-
The incident, described face a maze of red tape. sory Federal National Coun- dren.
by one of the women, was In the UAE, hospitals is- cil, argued last year’s decrim-
among the first concrete Obtaining birth certificates sue birth certificates only to inalization had an impact. Star said her daughter was
signs that the United Arab for their babies is a costly married parents. Without the taken from her during de-
Emirates had decriminalized process that the country’s certificates, children are un- “Prior to this, there was tention. She said 15 women
premarital sex in an overhaul poorest residents — foreign able to receive medical care, nothing in my hand to legal- shared a single bathroom,
of its Islamic penal code. workers who clean offices, attend school or travel. Their ize what they have,” he told subsisted on only rice and
serve food and care for the mothers, who lost work and the AP. “But now, there is a bread and were let out 30
But a year later, these un- children of other mothers residency during prosecution law … that we can help them minutes each day for fresh
wed mothers remain trapped — cannot afford. Expats out- under the old law, become with.” air. Other women described
in limbo, fighting to obtain number locals by nearly nine stranded. The number of un- police interrogations about
birth certificates for babies to one in the Emirates. documented children in the Under a new law that comes their sexual history as deeply
born in the shadows. UAE is not known. into force on Jan. 2, parents humiliating.
“We were so full of hope,” who fail to document their
A new law that comes into said Star, one of those re- Lawyers say the obstacles children face a minimum of But after these women were
effect in two weeks still does leased from Sharjah Central stem from an enduring con- two years in prison. It makes freed, they still couldn’t get
not offer unmarried women Jail in December 2020 with servative mindset and lack of no reference to health au- the one thing they wanted
a clear path to acquiring birth her 3-month-old daughter. government coordination. thorities issuing birth certifi- most: identity documents.
certificates for their babies. “Then came trouble I didn’t cates to single mothers. The

Extortionists target families of crash victims in Guatemala

(AP) — Guatemalan fami- resources, many of whom home to their families. The From January through No-
lies awaiting word on the The extortion is especially do not speak Spanish, but more than $11 billion Guate- vember, nearly 15,000 Gua-
fate of relatives involved cruel because the families are families say they’ve been told malans send home annually temalans were deported from
in a deadly migrant smug- distraught, poor and in most nothing official. accounts for more than 14% the United States by air. Dur-
gling accident in southern cases in debt for thousands of of Guatemala’s gross domes- ing the same period, another
Mexico are now also living dollars for the failed smug- Guatemala sent a high-level tic product. 58,000 were deported from
with the terror of extor- gling attempt. delegation including For- Mexico by land and air.
tionists telling them their eign Minister Pedro Brolo to
loved ones have been kid- “We’re scared,” said the Mexico on Friday. They met
napped. brother of one migrant, who with the injured in Chiapas
though living in the United and then went on to Mexico
In the vacuum of official in- States requested anonym- City to meet with Mexico
formation following Thurs- ity out of fear. “It says there Foreign Affairs Secretary
day’s deadly crash that left 55 are 40 kidnapped. We don’t Marcelo Ebrard.
migrants dead, opportunists know if my brother could be
are demanding money from there.” Guatemala’s government
their families for informa- announced three days of
tion. On Thursday afternoon, a mourning for victims Mon-
semi-trailer packed with mi- day.
In its desperation, one Gua- grants flipped in the south-
temalan family had published ern Mexico state of Chiapas. Thousands of Guatemalans
its phone number on social It was believed to have been continue to migrate north,
media hoping for informa- speeding, lost control on a hoping to reach the Unit-
tion about their missing rela- curve and smashed into a ed States. Experts estimate
tive. On Monday, they shared steel pedestrian bridge, spill- 300 to 500 leave daily and
with an AP reporter a screen ing bodies across the road. pay smuggling on average
capture showing a Mexican $10,000. To come up with
phone number demanding Authorities have struggled to that money they often sell
$3,000 if they wanted to see make identifications and in their belongings, hand over
him again. that lack of official informa- the deeds to their homes and
tion, criminals have entered take loans from relatives.
The caller even sent what ap- looking for profit.
peared to be an altered photo Those who successfully ar-
that superimposed the rela- The Guatemalan govern- rive in the U.S. provide a crit-
tive’s face on the body of an- ment made phone lines ical income source to Guate-
other migrant. available for families of few mala in the money they send