DUBAI // A maid who turned herself in to authorities so that she could get a passport for her 11-month-old son, who was a result of an illegal relationship, will spend a year in prison.
“I came two years ago to work as a maid in a royalty member’s house then I absconded and met a man in International City and we became close,” said J P, 29, a Filipino, at the Dubai Court of Misdemeanours.
She added that she lived with the Pakistani for a while but when she fell pregnant, she left him and did not tell him.
After giving birth at a shared house in Al Hamriya area, where a number of Filipina girls live J P decided to return to her country. But when she visited the Philippine embassy she was told that as she had a child from her illegal relationship, she should report it to the police.
She was charged with having consensual sex outside the wedlock, absconding from her sponsor and overstaying her visa.
The jailed woman will be able to keep her child with her in prison and will be deported after completing the year’s term.
salamir@thenational.ae
