Yahoo News 
Unmarried mothers jailed after handing themselves during UAE amnesty
Four mums who handed themselves and their children in during a UAE immigration amnesty have been jailed because the kids were conceived out of wedlock.
The children - Princess, Angel, Sofia and Angel-Joy - were all born to Filipina women living illegally in a house in Satwa, Dubai.
The misdemeanours court heard yesterday that the women had absconded from their sponsors and got pregnant by boyfriends who fled when they discovered they were expecting.
The women continued to stay illegally in the UAE with the kids, who are now aged between one and two, working part-time to survive.
When a two-month amnesty was launched in December, the women handed themselves in together and asked to be deported with their children.
One of the mums said in official records: “I went to the authorities to go back to my country, but they referred me to Bur Dubai Police Station for investigation.”
Officials discovered the women gave birth at the house in Satwa with the help of other people as they had feared they would be arrested if they went to hospital.
Another mother said in official records: “I came to the country to work as a housemaid in 2009, but after six months I ran away from my owner. I met a Filipino and used to have sex with him. I became pregnant.
He was afraid so left the country. I delivered my baby, Princess, with help from a friend, who has now left the country too.”
The mothers, aged 29, 30, 32 and 38, pleaded guilty to the charges of having sex outside of wedlock, staying illegally in the country and absconding from their sponsors.
Dubai Misdemeanours Court handed them each five-month prison sentences yesterday.
The women’s children will stay with them behind bars. They will be deported after serving their sentences.
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