A Guardian investigation has found women formerly employed as domestic workers in Saudi Arabia who appear to be “trapped” in the country after being denied birth certificates for their children or visas in order to leave and return home.
The Guardian has spoken to five Kenyan women who say they have been unable to register the birth of their children as they were born outside marriage. The women all fled abusive employers who then kept their identity documents.
The women say they have been trying to leave the country as their children are unable to attend school in Saudi Arabia without documentation, but have been told that exit visas cannot be processed because they have “stateless” children.
Having sex outside marriage is a crime under Saudi Arabia’s Islamic laws, with human rights groups saying women are disproportionately charged for this since resulting pregnancies are considered evidence. Survivors of rape or sex trafficking can be deemed to have confessed to extramarital sex and prosecuted.
Police approach Kenyan women protesting over their children’s lack of rights in Saudi Arabia
Children born outside wedlock in Saudi Arabia are also not entitled to birth certificates and their undocumented status means they cannot access basic rights and services, including medical care and education, and are unable to travel outside the Kingdom.
The five women interviewed by the Guardian had pregnancies during relationships with fellow migrant workers. All of the women are now single mothers and some say they were abandoned by their child’s fathers because they were scared of being arrested for having extramarital sex.
Fatima*, a migrant from Kenya who came to Saudi Arabia to be a domestic worker, said staff at her nearest hospital in the Saudi capital Riyadh threatened to call the police when she rushed there with labour pains.
“They said they would send me to jail if I didn’t bring [the necessary] documents. I was so afraid to go to jail with labour pains. I pretended like I was strolling around the hospital. Then, I just walked out of the gate and went back to my house.”
Fatima gave birth to a son just five minutes after entering her accommodation in Riyadh. “I cut the umbilical cord and cleaned myself. I cleaned my baby and wrapped him in a blanket. It was scary, but I just had to do it. There was nobody else to help me.”
Fatima said she ran away from her employer’s home because he was sexually harassing her and being physically abusive. He also confiscated her passport. She has been working informal jobs since then, but has been trying to leave Saudi Arabia for the past two years because her son, now eight, has been unable to go to school.
“The authorities here are not too concerned about the babies and their mothers,” said Fatima, who along with a group of other migrant mothers staged a public protest in April in the Manfuhah neighbourhood in Riyadh, blocking traffic and chanting that they wanted to go home – despite protests being illegal in Saudi Arabia and punishable by imprisonment.
“We want our kids to go to school. They’re missing a lot in their early childhood education. It’s very important and our babies are missing that opportunity.”
Migrant rights experts estimate the number of cases of stateless children born outside marriage in Gulf countries is in the thousands; they say every child has a right to identity and protection regardless of the circumstances of their birth.
The women interviewed say they are struggling to keep themselves and their children healthy and fed while waiting to leave Saudi Arabia. “I have to beg vegetables from the grocery shop and unsold bread and milk for my child,” said Lisa*.
The mothers interviewed say they have made several attempts over the last two years to get help to leave Saudi Arabia and say the Kenyan embassy refuses to process exit visas for Kenyans who have stateless children.
“The people at the Kenyan embassy say we are prostitutes,” said Christine*, a Kenyan mother of a stateless toddler. “They forget that some of these babies are from cases of rape by their boss or the driver of the house you’re working in. It’s very painful.”
The Kenyan embassy said it took DNA samples from the mothers and their children in November 2023 and is “currently processing” the test results. Mohamed Ruwange, the Kenyan ambassador to Saudi Arabia denied the allegation that embassy staff had incorrectly told some of the mothers their DNA did not match that of their children.
“The embassy wishes to affirm that it attends to the entire Kenyan diaspora population with utmost respect, decorum, diligence and professionalism. Specifically, on this sensitive matter involving minors and the inherent danger of child trafficking, the embassy has assisted, and continues to assist the affected Kenyan mothers within the applicable laws of both the Republic of Kenya and the host country,” said Ruwange.
The Saudi government was contacted for comment.
* Names have been changed to protect identities
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