The head of Awasir – the Society for the Welfare of Saudi Families Abroad – has said that unlicensed marriages, many conducted “in secrecy”, have left homeless or in poverty over 1,500 abandoned widows and children in 19 countries across the world. Awasir president Tawfiq Al-Suwailam said that the society was setting up a database of information on families left in dire straits by Saudi husbands and fathers, and that a precise survey ordered by Prince Naif, Second Deputy Premier and Minister of Interior, revealed data on 575 Saudi families – comprising 1,552 widows and children left fatherless in 19 countries – eligible for help from Awasir. “Prince Naif, as honorary president of Awasir ordered the study, and also that families are returned to the Kingdom as soon as possible,” Al-Suwailam said. According to Al-Suwailam, committees formed of representatives from the ministries of Interior, Foreign Affairs and Social Affairs were looking into the conditions of those families. “The countries where they are found stretch from the Philippines in the east to the United States in the west, and approximately 90 percent of them are in brotherly nations such as Yemen, Syria, Egypt, Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco, Lebanon and the Philippines,” he said. Many of the families, Al-Suwaliam said, had been living homeless or in poverty, in many cases due to unregulated marriages, “such as misyar, misfaar and ‘urfi marriages”. “We have seen Saudis getting married and then failing to care for their families and live up to their responsibilities,” Al-Suwailam said. “Some of them have given in to their whims and got married without any formal recognition or by ‘urfi marriage, and the family's woes often begin when the husband passes away. Most of those families usually approach Saudi embassies in their countries to make formal complaints over their situation, and the embassies in turn work with Awasir to support them once the history of their marriages has been verified.” According to Al-Suwailam, a “large number” of those marriages are conducted in secret. “That in itself forms a considerable additional obstacle,” he said. “A lot of Saudis hide the fact that they have wives and children outside the Kingdom.” Awasir, Al-Suwailam said, has “wide-ranging goals” in caring for nationals and facilitating their return home and resolving “social, financial and bureaucratic problems” by working with government bodies. “Financial help is only one way in which we help those families, and it will differ from one case to the next depending on the circumstances,” he said, noting that “millions of riyals” had been spent on families in need abroad. “We bring families and children back and provide naturalization services, national identities and help with government bureaucracy. We provide counseling and legal services and acclimatization programs and help them to integrate into society.” Other forms of assistance include education and training, health care, housing and moral support. “At the beginning of this year we supplied 860 school bags to families abroad containing all the school materials children require,” he said. Al-Suwailam said that Awasir was putting great emphasis on its studies of the underlying causes of the problem, and that it was working on media awareness campaigns to warn against unregulated marriage in foreign countries. “Undocumented marriage abroad and other practices affect the individual, the family, and society at large,” he said.
