Twenty-three-year-old Guinean citizen Mariam Soumah has been reunited with her daughter Sabina 10 months after being deported from Belarus. On May 23, the girl arrived in the Guinean capital of Conakry from Moscow accompanied by a Guinean consul and a medical worker, Radio Svaboda writes.
“I do not know how to properly express my thoughts — the joy is so immense! I, a mother separated from my child since birth, cannot even describe to myself the ordeal I went through over these months. And today God has put an end to my suffering. I thank the Belarusian authorities for saving two lives at once, and the international humanitarian organizations — the UN, especially UNICEF Belarus, the AFP agency, and other media outlets. They truly fought for me and my daughter. Thanks to them, the government of Guinea, knowing that one of its citizens was in a difficult situation, came to help so that my child could be with her mother,” Mariam said.
Sabina was born prematurely in November 2024 weighing only 600 grams. Belarusian doctors saved the lives of both mother and child during the premature birth. When the girl was four months old, she was transferred to an orphanage in Minsk, and her mother was no longer allowed to see her. Mariam was reportedly asked to pay more than $30,000 for the child’s treatment, although she said she had annual medical insurance. In early 2025, Belarusian authorities deported Mariam to Guinea while leaving her newborn child in Minsk.
The family’s reunification was preceded by lengthy work by international organizations. Requests on Mariam’s behalf were submitted to UN committees on the rights of the child and women’s rights, as well as to special rapporteurs. The Guinean embassy in Moscow issued the girl a travel document, while two UNICEF offices coordinated her evacuation.
(PATRICK MEINHARDT/AFP/AFP)
A Human Constanta rights defender involved in the case described what happened as a gross violation of the child’s rights. According to her, migration authorities rushed to deport the mother without taking the child’s interests into account, although they could have waited until the girl was discharged from hospital and deported them together. Mariam was not deprived of parental rights, and the separation occurred without any legal grounds.
“Yes, Mariam, the mother, violated the law, and there were grounds for deporting her. But the child’s interests were not taken into account. The migration service together with the police rushed to deport Mariam and left this child alone. In reality, there was a terrible violation of the rights of a child who had done nothing wrong but was left without her mother for a year and a half,” she stressed.
According to the rights defender, the girl spent a year and a half in an orphanage only because migration authorities hurried to deport the mother. They could have deported both together, but they were eager to “restore order.”
Belarusian authorities did not respond to AFP requests for comment on the situation.
