A Saudi family of 11 has allegedly been denied their basic human rights of education, health care, and jobs because they have not been able to get official national identification cards following the death of the head of the family about 20 years ago. The family only have Iqamas. Only one son, 28, has an official Saudi ID card after a long processing of his paperwork and he sponsors the entire family. The head of the family died without getting national IDs for his family members. The family submitted paperwork to the Civil Affairs Department in Arar in the Northern Border Region to get ID cards, but they have not been successful. Muhammad Al-Inizi, the son, said that his family had shown the department 49-year-old original documents to prove that their ancestors came from Hail, a city in the north of the Kingdom. His father and his grandfather moved to Arar from Hail without having ID cards because, at the time, they were not required to have any IDs to move around or to get jobs. “I am sure my father and grandfather had no clue that their siblings would be in trouble for not having national ID cards, otherwise they would have had some issued for them,” Al-Inizi said. “My mother and brothers and sisters have been hoping to have access to good education and health care in our own land,” he said. “I don't know why our paperwork has not been approved for naturalization,” he said. Al-Inizi is the only breadwinner of the family. He also takes care of his own wife, children and his elder brother and his wife. Life without identity cards is marked by both social and official crises, he said. “We are embarrassed whenever our family members are asked for some ID,” he said. This has caused them much “agony”, he added. Ibrahim Al-Rabish, Director of Arar's Civil Affairs Department, said that the Ministry of Interior's Civil Affairs Department is in possession of the family's application for naturalization. He urged the family to visit the ministry and check on the status of their application.
