Wheres Speed ? Some people need his help....

Home agony for family... again!
By GEOFFREY BEW

A DESTITUTE British family stranded in Bahrain faces being made homeless for a second time.

Now a new plea has gone out to help Belinda Gibson, daughter Sarah, 20 and her children Megan, two and Adam, eight weeks - both born out of wedlock in Bahrain.

Mrs Gibson, Sarah and Megan were given shelter in a government refuge for abused women in Tubli around four months ago - but have been told they must leave.

They ended up in the shelter after the family's breadwinner Alan Gibson, 51, was jailed and then deported.

But the refuge only allows people to stay for a maximum of eight weeks and officials say they can no longer keep the family there.

A British Embassy spokesman yesterday said officials had been in constant contact with the family since their plight emerged and had helped Mr Gibson return home.

But he said without valid passports and birth certificates for Sarah's children, there was little more they could do.

"We are advising them to come up with funds from friends or family," he said.

The spokesman added that if the family's legal documentation was complete, they might be able to convince authorities to waive fines for overstaying their visas.

Batelco Centre for Victims of Family Violence president Dr Banna Bu Zaboon confirmed that the Gibsons had been asked to leave the shelter as soon as they find an alternative.

"They are staying in the shelter but have exceeded the permitted time," she told the GDN.

"It is limited to eight weeks and they have already extended it by another eight weeks.

"Now we are trying to find a place for them elsewhere but we do not know where to take them.

"We are trying to do everything we can to help them, although it is not our usual type of case."

Dr Bu Zaboon is spearheading help for the family and negotiated their stay at the shelter.

She is also trying to legalise Mrs Gibson, 49, and Sarah's paperwork as their passports and residence permits have expired, while Megan and Adam were never officially registered.

Meanwhile, the Batelco Care Centre has provided the family with regular meals, clothes and nappies for the baby.

Dr Bu Zaboon said air tickets to England would cost around BD400 each, with another BD200 each in General Directorate of Nationality Passports and Residency (GDNPR) overstay fines.

However, she said no airline had responded to request for help which she wrote on their behalf.

The family's plight caps 18 months of misery and mounting debts, after Mr Gibson lost his job in December 2006.

He flew back to England in July, after serving 52 days in Jaw prison for failing to pay his debts - leaving his family homeless and living on handouts.

The family were living in an BD850-a-month villa in Saar, but were evicted in July last year for not paying the rent, which is when their plight was first reported in the GDN.

Mr Gibson was jailed in May but was released after serving his sentence and flew home after family friends in Bahrain paid for his ticket.

Mr Gibson, who is living with the couple's eldest son Mathew still has no income as unemployed and trying to find a job, while the family say relatives in the UK are not in a position to provide any financial help.

Dr Bu Zaboon expressed her surprise that no one had come forward to help the family.

"The main problem now is they need tickets to go home and nobody is helping us," she said.

"I feel sorry for them. They keep calling us every day and they are crying.

"They would have been on the streets if we had not helped them."

Dr Bu Zaboon also rejected suggestions that some may be reluctant to help a family who could be perceived to have caused their own downfall.

"We need the British community to do something to help them."

Anyone interested in helping can call Dr Bu Zaboon on .

geoff/-a-t-/gdn.com.bh