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http://www.arabnews.com/featured/news/693726
SAUDI ARABIA BANS SAUDI
FAMILIES FROM ADOPTING SYRIAN ORPHANS OR OTHER FOREIGN CHILDREN
Jeddah: Ibrahim Naffee – 23 January 2015
The Ministry of Social Affairs has banned Saudi families from
adopting Syrian or other foreign children.
“The ministry does not sponsor Arab children who lost their
parents in conflicts, such as in Syria and Iraq. There are global humanitarian
organizations that deal with these cases,” said Latifah Al-Tamimi, director of
social supervision at the ministry in the Eastern Province.
However, the ministry does support children of marriages between foreign women
and Saudi men, providing them full rights as citizens, she was quoted as saying
in a local publication on Thursday.
On a related matter, she said that Saudi families recently adopted 560 Saudi
orphans. These orphans are entitled to birth certificates, passports and other
personal documents.
The ministry also provides adoptive families SR3,000 a month, with the children
getting free medical treatment at private hospitals and bank accounts, she
said.
However, orphan children adopted by Saudis must keep their original family
names, and must be informed that they were adopted when they grow up. Al-Tamimi
said the ministry had not uncovered any abuse of the adoption system yet.
Orphans are entitled to live independently when they are 18. The ministry also
supports those who want to get married, providing a financial subsidy of
SR60,000 per person.
Abdullah Makki, a former Islamic science professor at Um Al-Qura University,
told Arab News that Islam encourages adoption but not changing the family names
of orphans. “Islam encourages Muslims to embrace orphans so that they are
raised in a family environment,” said Makki.