These fathers take no responsibility for these children financially. They refuse to recognize them, despite the mothers’ effort to contact the husbands and at least update them on the welfare of their children.

For Omar, Jamil, Fatima and Rashid, the worst thing they have to live with is the knowledge that their Saudi fathers and families are alive thousands of miles away, while seeing them is next to impossible. They are Filipino children from Saudi fathers who abandoned them when they were really young.

Arab News interviewed three families in the Philippines who were all abandoned by the fathers when the children were young.

They receive financial help from the Saudi Embassy in Manila, although they want to reconnect with their family back in the Kingdom. The mothers of all these children cry each time they remember the painful memory of the sudden disappearance of the fathers.

According to the families interviewed, the fathers were already married in Saudi Arabia and tried to hide any connection with their relationships or children in the Philippines.

Some of the men had one wife, while others had more than one.

“He would avoid talking about his Saudi family and would always say, ‘when I am in the Philippines I don’t want to talk about Saudi Arabia,’” said one mother of her husband, who abandoned her.

A Filipino mother had two children with a Saudi man, 20-year-old Fatima and Rashid, 13. Like many others, her husband left her without any prior notice. To support her family, the mother worked many jobs, including cleaning homes and babysitting. She also receives financial aid from the Saudi Embassy in Manila. The family lives with the children’s grandmother, who helps them financially.

The woman met her husband at a store in Manila and after a short relationship, she converted to Islam and they got married at a local mosque. Three years after Rashid was born, the husband disappeared, leaving nothing for the family. In the beginning, the father used to visit them twice a year and support them while living in Saudi Arabia.

Like any husband and wife, both used to fight and have arguments. She said that after 10 years of marriage, he told her that his wife in the Kingdom died and that he was leaving to attend the funeral. She added that he left but never came back. He stopped visiting and supporting them ever since.

“I don't know why he left, is it family issues, is it business problems, but we are waiting for him, still wanting to see him. This is what we want,” she added, bursting in tears.

It is a different yet sad story for the mother of 13-year-old Omar, whose Saudi father died in the Kingdom. When she was pregnant, the father called her and named the baby.

The mother said that her brother-in-law called her from the Kingdom to tell her about her husband’s death.

“I came to the embassy to confirm the news, and I got the confirmation. However Omar's family in the Kingdom do not answer my calls. I know that Omar has a brother in Saudi Arabia. He wants to see him, as he feels lonely here. He also wants to learn Arabic.”

Jamil Issa, a 21-year-old university student in the Philippines, resembles his father. He got his name after his father insisted on calling him Issa, while his mother preferred Jamil. Soon after his birth, however, the father left the family and never came back.

She received a phone call from Saudi Arabia informing her that the father had died. Since then, they had no contact with the family. The embassy is now also giving Jamil and his mother donations. Jamil is Christian and is thinking of converting to Islam.

The ambassador of Saudi Arabia in Manila, Abdullah Al-Hassan, told a local daily earlier this year that they are looking forward to reconnect such Saudi fathers with their children. He added there were not many such cases.

“The embassy continues its efforts to solve the cases of Saudi children born to Filipino mothers. We also try to convince them to move to the Kingdom and live with their fathers,” he said. “Only nine families are left with seven boys and five girls. The embassy attempts to convince the Saudi fathers to take responsibility for their children.”

According to him, there are 16 boys and six girls not recognized by their fathers, who are also not willing to pay for their expenses or take any parental responsibility.

The Society for the Welfare of Saudi Families Abroad announced recently that there are almost 600 families living in similar circumstances in 30 countries. It stated that the society is working to resolve 30 such cases in the Philippines, 232 in Egypt, 214 in Syria, 84 in Morocco, 31 in Jordan and 66 in Bahrain.