Saudi deports Saudi boy by mistake to Yemen

A 13-year-old Saudi boy who went out to play with friends in a border village never returned home. After a search of nearly eight months, his relatives were told he was living in a care centre in Yemen.

Police said they had deported a group of illegal Yemeni migrants and the boy, Khaled, could have been among them but apparently did not have any identity papers with him, Okaz newspaper reported.

“He used to go to play with his friends every day but on that day, he was late…we thought he might be at a friend’s house but we searched every where….he simply vanished,” his grandfather Abdullah Al Shirai told the paper at his house in the southern Saudi province of Jazan close to the border with Yemen.

“We had been to every home in the village, every hospital and to all police centres in the region but we could not find him…we almost gave up hope but after eight months, we were told by some friends that they saw him in a care centre in Yemen.”

Khaled’s grandmother Sharifa said friends tried to bring him back but Yemeni officials told them he would be handed only to his family.

“The boy is still there and we appeal for King Abdullah to help us bring our child back home,” she said.

Okaz quoted Saudi ambassador in Yemen Ahmed Al Hamdan as saying the embassy was in touch with local officials to get Khaled out of the caring centre and send him back home.

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