Woman is reunited with the mother she never knew 34 YEARS after her father abducted her and her sisters to Yemen when she was just still a toddler
- Jackie Morgan, 57, had her three daughters taken from her by their father
- Her daughter Safia Saleh was just 18-months-old when she was taken to Yemen
- Thanks to crowdfunding, Ms Morgan travelled to Yemen and reunited with family
A woman who was abducted by her father as a young girl and taken to Yemen has been reunited with her mother 34 years later.
Jackie Morgan, 57, was heartbroken when her three daughters were snatched from her by their father, Sadek Saleh, in 1986.
Her daughter Safia Saleh was just 18-months-old at the time and did not know who her real mother was.
Jackie Morgan, 57, (pictured) as heartbroken when her three daughters were snatched from her by their father, Sadek Saleh, in 1986. She has now been reunited with the youngest, Safia
Safia’s father Sadek Saleh (right) abducted his children and took them to Yemen in 1986. Pictured left: Safia Saleh
Jackie, middle left, in Porthcawl, the last time she saw two of her daughters, Rahannah, left, and Nadia, middle right. Also pictured is her other daughter, Lucy, right
Ms Morgan married Sadek Saleh in 1983 and converted to Islam in the same year, but their marriage soon began to deteriorate.
Ms Morgan went to a women’s refuge with her three daughters, but said: ‘Conditions were so bad I went crawling back home to try and make my marriage work for the sake of the children.’
On May Bank Holiday 1986, Sadek said he was taking the girls to stay overnight with friends in Cardiff – but it would be years until she saw them again.
By the time she had called police, he had already flown from Heathrow to Saudi Arabia, taking the children with him.
‘It’s still a mystery how he got them all out of the UK,’ Ms Morgan said.
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But thanks to a crowdfunding campaign which raised £7,500, the mother and daughter have been reunited in Cardiff.
Ms Morgan said: ‘I am very overwhelmed and so, so happy to be reunited with my daughter Safia after 34 years.
‘I have also gained four grandchildren and a son-in-law. I never gave up fighting for my children.’
Ms Saleh was raised by another woman in Yemen along with her sisters Rahannah, five, and Nadia, four.
She only found out who her real mother was when Ms Morgan flew to Yemen with their birth certificates.
Ms Saleh, 34, is now married with four children and fled to Egypt with her family on Christmas Eve due to the war in Yemen.
Safia, middle left, with her four children, left to right, Mohammed, aged 12, Jacqueline, aged 11, Lucy, aged 10, and Asalah, aged two, at the front
Her husband Labeb and their children Mohammed, 12, Jacqueline, 11, Lucy, 10, and Asalah, 2, all travelled together to Cardiff.
Ms Saleh said: ‘It was so difficult in the Yemen. We had no money, no house and no school for the children. There was no security.
‘I have a feeling I cannot express with words. I feel safe now with my mother. I feel better.’
Ms Morgan gave special thanks to Assembly Member Neil McEvoy for organising the campaign.
Mr McEvoy added: ‘There are moments in life when it seems that all hope is lost. But Jackie and her family kept going for 34 years.
‘She never gave up and has always fought for her daughters, even when they were thousands of miles away in a war zone. It just shows that anything is possible.’
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