?DUBAI // A woman abandoned her two illegitimate children and was found three days later drinking alcohol with a friend, a court heard yesterday.
Police tracked her down after one of her children, an 11-month-old boy, became seriously ill and required hospital treatment.
She claimed she left the children only briefly so she could look for a job.
D?K, 32, from Kenya, was charged at the Misdemeanours Court yesterday with endangering the lives of her children, sex outside of marriage and overstaying her visa.
Prosecutors said she came to the UAE on a visit visa in 2009 and started a relationship with a compatriot, C?N.
She moved in with him in Deira, became pregnant and gave birth to a girl at a friend’s house. The baby suffered from tuberculosis, passed to her from the mother.
About a year later she became pregnant again and gave birth to a boy, who was also delivered at the friend’s house. Neither child was vaccinated.
The woman’s partner abandoned her and left the country. She took the children to the house of her friend, A?K, where the children had been born, and left them in the care of her friend’s roommate on December 11 last year.
The boy became ill and after three days with no contact from the mother, the friend took him to Al Baraha Hospital.
“They asked me for a lot of money for his treatment,” said the friend. “I didn’t have enough, so I told police about their mother and the truth.”
Police found the mother at the house of another friend, where she was drinking alcohol, and arrested her.
In court she said she left the children so she could seek work that would support her family.
“I lost my passport and the fines for overstaying my visa were accumulating,” she said.
She confessed to sex outside marriage and overstaying her visa but denied endangering her children’s lives. A verdict will be issued soon.
salamir@thenational.ae
