A “STATELESS” brother and sister who have lived in Bahrain for almost 30 years without passports hope they could soon be granted Indian citizenship.

Eman Mohammed Rafeeq, 28, and her brother Jaffar Mohammed Rafeeq, 27, were born and raised in Bahrain and have gone through life without any official identity documents.

Their plight illustrates the pitfalls facing expatriate children whose parents fail to register their births with the proper authorities.

An Indian Embassy official said it was aware of 19 such cases and urged Indian citizens to register all new births within a year.

The parents of Eman and Jaffar Rafeeq – Indian Mohammed Rafeeq and his Bahraini wife Fatima – say they were unaware that they had to provide relevant documentation to Indian authorities to ensure their children qualified for Indian citizenship.

Meanwhile, Bahraini women who marry foreigners have previously been unable to pass on their nationality to their children, although amendments to the law were approved by the Cabinet in January and referred to the National Assembly.

“They do not have citizenship, although they are Indian citizens as they are born to an Indian father,” Mr Rafeeq told the GDN.

“My son cannot get a job as he doesn’t have any valid documents proving his existence.

“He takes up temporary work like serving tea and the like, which fetches him nothing more than BD20 a month.

“My daughter, who was married and now divorced, is also in the same plight and she has two children.

“I am so stressed bearing the burden of the entire family and I wish the (Indian) embassy and authorities in India consider my plea (for his son and daughter to receive Indian citizenship) sympathetically.”

Procedures

The couple’s three younger children – a son aged 25 and two daughters aged 24 and 18 – all have Indian passports because their births were properly reported.

“By the time of their births we knew about the procedures, whereas in case of the older two we didn’t know,” said Mr Rafeeq, who has worked as a port labourer at Mina Salman for 24 years.

He has now taken up the issue with the Indian Home Affairs Ministry, through the Indian Embassy, since his two eldest children do not even have CPR cards.

Not only are they unable to travel abroad, they can’t do basic things such as visit to hospitals or get a driving licence.

Mr Rafeeq first raised the issue at the Indian Embassy during an open house last month, but was told the embassy could only renew passports of existing Indian citizens.

An embassy spokesman confirmed that Mr Rafeeq’s case had now been referred to India’s Home Affairs Ministry.

“We await a response from them and all we can do is wait as they are the sole authority to issue a nationality,” he said.

Meanwhile, an embassy official revealed it had received 19 cases of stateless people from the community.

“We have forwarded all the cases to the Home Affairs Ministry,” he said.

“Out of these, we are happy to note that two have been approved while nine have been returned due to minor objections.

“We are doing what’s required to reapply these cases.”

He added that nine of the cases involved adults aged over 18 and urged Indian parents to register all births at the embassy within a year.
raji@gdn.com.bh