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Abu Dhabi: "My children have got a new life," said Ravi, minutes before leaving the UAE along with his children Sheila and Dinesh, who have been staying in the country without legal documents.
On September 6 Gulf News published a report about children who have no visas, passports or birth certificates as they have been born at home to parents who are illegal residents.
Six-year-old Sheila and eight-year-old Dinesh were two such children who were confined to their home without access to education. Making use of the amnesty period, their father Ravi was able to procure outpasses for them with the help of social workers. However, they had no money to pay for travel expenses.
On reading the report, a Gulf News reader Arvin Raj came forward to help the children by providing them with air tickets to India.
"They had to exit the country before September 8. So I quickly made arrangements for the tickets," said Raj.
"The children were suffering through no fault of their own and they deserve better lives. I have also offered to back the education of the children financially," he added.
Scared
Raj invited the children to his home before they left for India.
"I chatted with them for a while and gave them some sweets. Both of them have promised me they will study hard," he added.
The children's father, Ravi, who is a legal resident, is employed by a laundry in Umm Al Quwain.
"I have a family back in India but here I came in contact with a Sri Lankan lady working as a housemaid with whom I later moved into an apartment," said Ravi.
"We got married and had two children. Our elder son Dinesh was born in a hospital but by the time my wife was pregnant with Sheila, she had been illegally staying in the country for years. So we were scared about going to the hospital and arranged for the delivery to be at home," he said, adding that a midwife (non-certified) was called in for help.
Ravi has no idea of the whereabouts of his wife.
"When Sheila was still a baby her mother was deported to Sri Lanka after she was caught in a police raid. It is during that time the tsunami hit the country. Since then I have had no information about her," said Ravi.
According to him all his efforts to reach his wife at contact numbers in Sri Lanka have been futile and he has stopped trying.
"Making use of the amnesty period, I went to the Indian Embassy and with the help of some social workers I managed to get outpasses for my children. The other processes were not easy. I went to India and confessed all ... to my first wife, who agreed to take care of my children. She also gave a legal statement in agreement to this," Ravi said.
"The children were suffering through no fault of their own and they deserve better lives. I have also offered to back the education of the children financially... I chatted with them for a while and gave them some sweets.
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