November 10th, 2025 - Children of Unwed Mothers Trapped in Saudi Arabia

Children slip in and out of view along a Riyadh median by a gas station, seeking shade by day and sleeping there by night, alongside their Kenyan mothers. Dalia, an outgoing 8-year-old in a red dress, learned English from YouTube. Nearby, a newborn named Abudy cries for milk, while a toddler watches traffic with wide eyes. The mothers worked as housekeepers and nannies, part of a system that recruited them to Saudi homes, then left many abused, exploited, and abandoned when they became pregnant outside marriage.

Because unmarried motherhood sits in a legal gray zone, these children often receive no birth certificates, no medical care, and no schooling, despite Saudi law that promises identification and services to all children. Without documents, they cannot leave the country, and without help, they cannot fully live in it. Kenyan officials, who should protect them, have often scolded, delayed, or ignored them, putting paperwork, fees, and excuses ahead of mothers and babies. It is a cruel pipeline, built on cheap labor, that turns desperate women into commodities and their children into ghosts.

Mothers describe shelters that turn them away if they arrive with a baby, hospitals that notify police for “illegal pregnancy,” and embassies that demand DNA tests, then never deliver results. Some women were raped, others dated fellow migrants, many gave birth at home with unlicensed midwives, fearing arrests or refusals at public hospitals. A WhatsApp group swings between hope and panic, with pleas for help, offers of baby showers, and horrifying messages about abandoned children. With no real process to register births, mothers are told to consult social workers and police, yet no one shows a workable path.

In this vacuum, rumors become plans. Word spread that single mothers could be deported with their children if they waited at a specific gas station in Manfooha. Women came, they slept outside, they begged officers to arrest them together, and they were told to go back to their embassies. Passers-by sometimes bring food and clothes, a cashier charges phones for free, and Dalia’s red dress came from a stranger’s kindness. For many, charity fills the role that governments and agencies refuse to play.

Individual stories show the system’s failures in human terms. Esther, a legally hired cleaner, delivered her son and was detained, questioned, and released with nowhere to go. She appealed to her employer, to shelters, and to the embassy, and finally joined the mothers at the gas station. Another mother, Penina, was deported alone after a police raid, while her daughter remained in an unlicensed day care. Others wait years for DNA results that never arrive, or try to piece together informal schooling and private medical visits at inflated prices.

A just system would be simple and firm, children first, clear rules, fast verification, swift deportation processing for families who request it, and real penalties for recruiters and officials who profit from abuse. It would uphold Saudi law that promises IDs, health care, and education, and it would compel embassies to act, not stall. This is common sense, strong borders and strong laws, zero tolerance for trafficking and bureaucratic games, protection for the innocent, and accountability for those who exploit them.

Until that happens, the median remains a last resort. Mothers hold babies under blistering heat, wait for rides that arrive late, and pray for a document, a stamp, a flight home together. The fix is not complicated, it requires will, not excuses, leadership that puts vulnerable families ahead of corrupt middlemen, and policies that are enforced quickly and consistently, so no child’s life depends on a rumor at a gas station.

Word of the Day (Merriam-Webster) - Temerity (noun, tuh-MAIR-uh-tee) - Temerity is the quality of being confident and unafraid of danger or punishment, especially in a way that seems rude or foolish. Temerity may also refer to a rash or reckless act.

Example: She had the temerity to ask me for another loan when she had yet to begin repaying the first one.

Image credit: Unsplash