Crowdfunder launched for Welsh woman trapped in Yemen warzone

A new crowdfunder has been launched in the hope of bringing the daughter of a Cardiff resident back from Yemen.

Jackie Saleh’s daughters were taken from her in 1986 when her then-husband Sadek Saleh fled to Saudi Arabia, and then to Yemen.

She spent years searching for them but didn’t speak to her daughters again for 15 years, when they managed to get in contact.

Their father, who had abducted them, had told the daughters their mother was dead.

Now Jackie Saleh wants to rescue her daughter Safia from the Yemen war zone and see her for only the second time in more than 30 years.

“I need to get Safia out,” Jackie Saleh said. “She’s a British citizen but the Foreign Office have said they’re unable to do anything to help her.

“The only way for Safia to come home is by raising the money to pay for her flights.

“Getting out of Yemen is very difficult. The flights are really expensive and I don’t have the money to pay for them by myself. I really need some people to help me.

“This is every mother’s worst nightmare. My child is living in a terrible war zone and just wants to come home. I’ve already lost her once and don’t want to lose her for good. Please help me.”

You can donate to the crowdfunder to Bring Safia Home here.

Warzone

One of Jackie’s daughters died in childbirth, and she has lost contact with another daughter. But Safia is “desperate” to return to her mother, she said.

Safia is currently living just outside the Yemeni town of Hodeidah, which is being bombed by Saudi Arabian warplanes as they battle the Houthi rebels that took over much of the country.

Safia is a British citizen but has been told by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office that there is no evacuation procedure for British citizens in Yemen.

With the British Government unwilling to provide any help Jackie turned to her Assembly Member, Neil McEvoy, to launch a crowdfunder to bring Safia home.

Jackie plans to raise £6000 to pay for the flights back to Cardiff.#

“It’s really appalling the Foreign Office won’t do anything to help Safia,” Neil McEvoy, whose grandfather is from Yemen, said.

“I like to think that the one thing you can rely on the British Government to do is try to get you out of a war zone. But they won’t.

“That means it’s up to the community to rally together and help Jackie and Safia. It’s really hard to get out of the Yemen. The flights are very irregular and expensive. You just get the call and then you have to leave immediately for the airport. Then you can fly to Egypt and get a flight to the UK.

“Jackie and Safia have been through so much and I really hope they can be reunited.”