Two of the three remaining Maldivian girls - displaced in India - returns home

The two remaining girls, who were put in an orphanage in India by their mother under the pretense that their father had died, have been brought back home.

Three young Maldivian girls- Yasra Abdulla, Aminath Nasra and Mariyam Naura- were put in an Indian orphanage by their Indian mother, claiming that their father, a Maldivian, had died.

12-year-old Yasra was brought back to the Maldives in April 2017, the other two were returned home to Ukulhas of Alifu Alifu atoll this Sunday, after the mother granted them permission to travel to Maldives.

Maldivian authorities were only able to give the case any attention after a special documentary, investigated by RaajjeTV’s Mohamed Wisam, was aired on 31st March 2017, despite the fact that these were Maldivian children, carrying Maldivian identity cards and passports.

The children’s mother, Saeed Ali Fathima took them to India in 2013 for holidays, and saying that their father had died.

A family member of Fathima informed the children’s father, Abdulla Basheer where his children were, nearly a year after they were put in the orphanage.

Basheer and their grandfather, Naeem were able to get them released from there, with the help of the Maldivian Consulate in India, who despite the circumstances decided to hand the children to Fathima.

Basheer and Naeem had told the officials that they wanted to take the children back to Maldives, who denied the request, instead threatening to report them to the Indian authorities. Basheer was also forced to sign a document acknowledging the Consulate’s decision to hand the children over to the mother.