Glimpse of hope for ‘stateless family’

Hope has been restored for a five-member stateless family that has been living in the Kingdom without any legal documents for more than 30 years.

This comes as the Indian Embassy here informed the family yesterday that their matter is being processed with top prominence at the External Affairs Ministry in New Delhi.

Born to an Indian father and Sri Lankan mother, the four siblings (three sisters and one brother) have been living in difficult conditions as they have no identity proof except for birth certificates they obtained from the Health Ministry here.

The second eldest daughter Sumaya Yadiah, 30, told Tribune yesterday that she had visited the embassy yesterday to follow up on her request to issue passports for her and her siblings.

As reported yesterday by Tribune, Ms Yadiah handed over a written plea to India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj while she inaugurated the new Indian Embassy complex in Seef District on Saturday.

The woman told that conveying her plea to the minister was her last resort, claiming that her repeated requests to the Indian Embassy as well as the Sri Lankan embassy were denied due to lack of identity verification and other supportive documents.

However, she told the minister promised her that their matter will be looked into and hopefully solved.