Latest / History Dark / Kidnapped By My Father_ and Kept in a War Zone. _ Crime Stories _ True Crime Central

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Kidnapped By My Father_ and Kept in a War Zone. _ Crime Stories _ True Crime Central · History Dark

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: That was in a frame, but as I looked, I
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: got a bit upset because it was just too heartbreaking
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: to look at. Every time I see that photograph, it
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: reminds me of the day the girls got taken.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: The three Saleh children, five-year-old Rahana, four-year-old Nadia and Safia,
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: who's nearly two, were taken from their Cardiff home by
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: their father last Friday.
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: In 1986, Cardiff woman Jackie Saleh suffered every mother's worst nightmare.
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: Her three young children were kidnapped by their father. taken
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: out of the country and held captive in a war zone.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: And I thought, how can I go on? How can
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: I live without my kids?
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: It's been over 30 years since Jackie first appealed for
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: help to get her daughters back.
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: I have very great hope that I will get my
• 0:50
  Speaker 4: children back.
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: It is a quest that has endangered her life and
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: those who've supported her.
• 0:56
  Speaker 5: We had to get out, basically, before he came.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: And it's been a journey filled with tragedy and heartbreak.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: I don't think anybody should have to go through that,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: all that pain.
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: After decades of searching and praying, Jackie is now ready
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: to tell the story of her struggle to find her
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: children for the very first time.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Hi, my name is Jacqueline Sala and this is my story.
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: Jackie's story begins in Cardiff in the late 70s as
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: a headstrong teenager looking for excitement.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: I was 15. We went to a party one night.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: I don't know why I got in because I looked
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: too young. I looked at about 12. So, yeah, we
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: managed to get into this club and that's where I
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: met my partner.
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: Once inside the club, she found herself being wooed by
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: a handsome stranger, Sadek, a man from the city's Yemeni community.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: My ex-husband, Sadek Hussein Saleh, I think I was 15,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: he was about 28, so there was quite a bit
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: of an age gap there. But he didn't seem to
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: be that age, you know, he seemed a lot younger.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: It was fairly exciting and romantic, but then my mum
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: and dad were horrified. They were not happy at all,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: especially my dad, because I was so young. And, you know,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: he wasn't happy that I was going on to someone
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: a lot older than me as well. So, yeah, he
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: wasn't happy at all.
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: Despite the protests of Jackie's parents, who disapproved of the
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: age difference, the two became a couple. Within a few
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: years of meeting, they started a family. But Jackie was
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: left alone for long periods while Sadek travelled to the
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: Middle East.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: For work I was having Rihanna, my first child, and
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: he decided that he wanted to go abroad, so he
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: moved to Saudi Arabia. Rihanna was born and then he
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: came back. Then I had Nadia.
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: Already parents to two young daughters, the couple decided to
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: get married.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: The wedding was just a registry office wedding. No family, nothing,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: just me and him and two witnesses. I didn't tell
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: my parents. My mum wasn't happy. She was horrified. And
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: then we travelled to London to get married in a mosque.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: I turned my religion around to Muslim. I had to
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: learn parts of the Quran. And that is so very hard.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Because otherwise, if I hadn't learned that, I wouldn't have
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: been able to get married. I had two children then.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: I had Rayana and Nadia. They were only little small
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: children then, so... We decided to move to Saudi because
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: he had a job out there.
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: Jackie and the two girls went with Sadek to Saudi Arabia.
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: Whilst in the country, Jackie fell pregnant with Safia. After
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: many months away from Wales, she told her husband she
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: wanted to return home.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: I was worried when I was in Saudi Arabia that
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: he were trying to keep the girls there. You know,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: I wanted them to be in Britain, be able to
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: choose what they wanted out of life, basically, when they
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: grow up. choose whether they want to follow the Koran
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: or they want to, you know, choose their religion. And
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: I said, I want to go home. And he agreed.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: He said, you can go back with the girls. And
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: I thought, good, because I didn't want Safiya being born
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: in Saudi Arabia. So I came back to Cardiff. Safiya
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: was born in the August of 1984. I think she
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: was seven pounds six. Massive loads of curly hair, beautiful baby.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: And he was happy, you know. but I think he
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: would have liked a son, but it's all girls in
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: our family, so obviously I had another daughter, which I
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: was really proud of. Very pretty girls, beautiful, absolutely stunning.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: With the birth of Safia, Sadek gave up his job
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: in Saudi Arabia and moved back to Ely in Cardiff,
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: where Jackie was embracing motherhood.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: We had an amazing bond, the girls. I mean, they
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: were all for me. I mean... There was so much
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: love there. I mean, the girls are amazing. I mean,
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: they were such lovely children. Nadia was so cute and
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: so sweet. And Ray Hanna was the same. Though he,
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: you know, he acted like he wanted the children to
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: be with him, I don't think he was very loving
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: towards them. You never seen him hug or kiss them.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: There was no warmth or anything like that. I think
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: because they were girls... I think he viewed women as
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: just something to scrape on your shoe, basically. I think
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: they were a little bit wary of him as well,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: so I think that's why the relationship started breaking down,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: because he didn't want the girls to be brought up
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: in Britain. He wanted them to be brought up the
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: way he wanted them to be brought up, Muslim girls.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: They would just be kept indoors and just you know,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: being told what to do and things like that. And
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: I think he thought if they stayed here, obviously they'd
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: go to school, they'd go to uni, and I don't
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: think he wanted that for them. I think he just
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: wanted to control those girls. Basically, our marriage just went downhill.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: He disappeared for days on end. Drinking got out of control.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: He was gambling all the time. And we never had
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: no money, so, yeah, life wasn't good. I think because
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: he was a lot older than me as well, I
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: think things got a little bit controlling. I wasn't allowed out.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: I mean, he even said what I had to wear.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: I wasn't allowed to show certain parts of my body. Like,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: I wore a top. It couldn't be low neck or
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: showing anything like skin on the top. It had to
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: be covered up. And he was very physical as well.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: He'd give me a slap now and again, things like that.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: He actually threw a table at me and, well, cut
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: all my head open and it broke my arm.
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: Their marriage was blighted by domestic violence so severe that
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: Jackie believed her life was in danger.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: So I just phoned this place and I said, I
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: need somewhere to stay and they arranged for someone to
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: come to the house and take me to this refuge.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: Then I decided, why should I not be able to
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: go home? And when I got back to the house,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: he was waiting. And that's when it really started to
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: get really bad again. Hot tongs on my arm. A shoe,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: maybe slap. Cigarette burns. Just where sometimes you couldn't see
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: where he'd hit me. I think he was just a monster.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: It was just awful. I just felt I wanted to
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: just run away, just escape and take the girls, but
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: I had nowhere to go. So I was just stuck
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: there with this person that I hated more than anything
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: in my whole life. The situation was getting worse and worse.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: I think he was just planning to do something really,
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: really bad. I just could feel it. And I did
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: go to see a solicitor and apply for a divorce.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: And he said, no, you know, he said, it's not
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: in our culture to divorce. He said, you bring shame
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: on his family and the girls would be grown up
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: without a dad, things like that. And he wanted the
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: girls to grow up in his culture. And I think
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: that's why we had a lot of clashes.
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: The abuse got worse and worse until one day Sadek's
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: behaviour changed. Suddenly, the violence stopped. Instead, he became distant, preoccupied,
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: like there was something else on his mind. It was
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: May 1986. Jackie had woken feeling unwell with a heavy cold.
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: Sadek surprised her by offering to take the children to
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: see his father, who lived on the other side of
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: Cardiff for the weekend.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: I just didn't think anything of it. I just thought, oh,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: he'll be back. He said he'll be back Sunday, Sunday morning.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: I think he must have been planning something because he
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: started to be a bit nicer, started to say, oh,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: do you want to do this, do you want to
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: do that? And I thought, well, that's not him. You know,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: someone doesn't change overnight. And I thought, no, something's up.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: But I never thought in a million years this would
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: happen to me.
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: As the weekend progressed, Jackie's worries grew.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: Sunday morning, come and went. Sunday night, and I started
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: to panic. I'm thinking, where is he? You know, what's happening?
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: So the police got involved then, because on the Monday
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: morning he still hadn't turned up.
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: With mystery still surrounding what had happened to the children,
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: Jackie found herself the focus of the authorities' suspicions. For Jackie,
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: this was just the first day of a waking nightmare
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: that would last for decades.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: The police interrogated me, came to the house, lifted all
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: the floorboards up, because when a child goes, children go missing,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: that's what they do. Because, obviously, the first thing they think,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: their mother or father's done something to the children. I
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: didn't think they'd gone abroad, but I thought... He'd taken
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: them somewhere, maybe in this country, but I didn't think
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: they'd gone abroad. And the only time I knew is
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: when the police informed me that Interpol had traced him
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: to Heathrow Airport and people came forward saying they'd seen
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: him on a train going to Heathrow. And when they
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: checked the flight, the three girls were on it and
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: he was on it as well.
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: The flight the children had boarded was headed to Saudi Arabia,
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: a country with no extradition treaty with the United Kingdom.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: That was the time I knew that he'd completely gone
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: and my will just fell apart.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: The three Saleh children, five-year-old Rahana, four-year-old Nadia and Safia,
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: who's nearly two, were taken from their Cardiff home by
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: their father last Friday.
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: The story of the children being taken from their mother
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: soon became headline news.
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: This afternoon, Special Branch said Mr Saleh and his daughters
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: had taken the 12.30 flight from Heathrow Airport to Jeddah
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: on Saturday. Mr Saleh had threatened before to take his
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: daughters away.
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: They have threatened in the past to take him away.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: Why was that?
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: Why did he threaten that? Well, you know, we.
• 12:30
  Speaker 6: Hadn't gotten along too well, you know. My mind was
• 12:33
  Speaker 6: a bit, you know, with friction, you know, in their marriage.
• 12:37
  Speaker 6: But I didn't think he'd ever, you know, actually do it.
• 12:39
  Speaker 6: I am concerned for their welfare, you know, and where
• 12:41
  Speaker 6: he could be. They haven't got no coats or anything
• 12:44
  Speaker 6: with them or anything. You know, so I'm concerned for
• 12:47
  Speaker 6: the children.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: They classed her as a criminal now because he took
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: the girls, but Sophia didn't have a passport. The two
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: girls were on my passport, so he took my passport.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: So obviously he's forged a passport because he had a
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: Yemeni passport. So today it's still a mystery how he
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: got those girls out of the country. I think he
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: just took them for spite to teach me a lesson,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: saying that I could do this. You know, I'm their
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: dad and... Basically, he said, you'll never see him again.
• 13:21
  Speaker 6: They have contacted the embassy over there and Interpol, and
• 13:25
  Speaker 6: they're trying to trace where he has gone with the children.
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: And all we know is just wait and see, you know,
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: what will happen. And I think they would be grieving
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: for me right now, you know.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: Are you confident that you will get your children from
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: Saudi Arabia eventually?
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: I have very great hope that I will get my
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: children back.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: Screaming, shouting, crying.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: Just all emotions go through my head to think that
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: I might never see those girls again. I was just like...
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: I couldn't explain the emotions I was going through. It
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: just killed me, basically. I made myself really ill. I
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: thought it was my place to make sure those girls
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: were always safe and they were always with me. And
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: I felt I failed as a mother because they were
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: taken by the person who was supposed to love them,
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: who's their dad... And they've been cruelly snatched away from me.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: And I just think that should never, ever happen. A
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: mother should never have to go through that situation where,
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: you know, you'll never see your kids again. You know,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: it's every woman's nightmare. That's all I can say. Every
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: woman's nightmare.
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: With the help of her family, she launched a campaign
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: of letter writing and begged the media for help. It
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: was a campaign that would last for more than three decades.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: I've tried everything. I go to London all the time.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: I have interviews with everybody. But it was just like
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: a brick wall would just come down every time we
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: got a little bit further. It was just like somebody saying, well,
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: this is not happening. Because I didn't have no positive
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: idea where they were. They weren't prepared to even go
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: out there and search for them. Basically, they just told me,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: once the stable door's bolted, there's nothing they can do.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: That's what one of them told me. I think that
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: was William Hague. I mean, we fought for so long,
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, I never, ever gave up on the hope
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: that I would see the girls again.
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: Gradually, the months turned into years. Jackie eventually remarried and
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: had another daughter, Lucy. As soon as Lucy was old enough,
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: she was told about her three sisters. Today, Lucy is
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: 32 and looks through the handful of family snaps that
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: Jackie still has, the others taken by Sadek when he
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: abducted the girls.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: This one, I think Nadia looks the devil of you.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: I do think so.
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: That was taken here, that was. I had a professional
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: photograph done of the two girls. That was before they went,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: that was, yes. That's Rehanah. And that's Nadia. Nadia would
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: have been four, and Rihanna would have been five. So really,
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: that was the only photographs I had when the girls went.
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: Years passed, and Jackie heard nothing. Then one day, an
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: envelope arrived that contained a photograph of her children.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: It was just a photograph, just like that on the post.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: Just nothing, no letter, nothing. Just, that's all it was,
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: you know, and that's You know, heartbreaking to think. You know,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: he never sent any explanation or nothing. Just a photograph
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: in an envelope, just sent. And we didn't know where
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: the postmark was from either. So we didn't know where
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: he sent it from. So we never had no idea whatsoever.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: Rhianna looks about nine there. She looks about nine there.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: Nadia would be eight. And she looks about four, don't she, Sophia? Yeah.
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: Later that year... Another photo arrived.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: That one was sent. Same year? Yeah, the same year.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: So he's just been taunting me, really, with the girls.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: I mean, sending photographs like that. It just came... It
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: was a note one. Yeah, it said a note saying,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: you'll never see the kids again. They'll bring her up
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: as good Muslim girls. My heart just dropped, cos I
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: knew for a fact then they weren't coming back. And
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: there was nothing I could do about it. And the
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: British government didn't want to know, so it was basically
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: on my own. just to try and get some sort
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: of justice to get the girls back to Britain. You know,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: look at here and you think how grown up they
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: are and, you know, missed all those years and you
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: just can't get them back, can you? Even with that photo, though,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: like all my friends know that photo, they always say, oh,
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: whenever you come to your mum's house, you always have
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: that picture on the side there. Yeah, my favourite here
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: is that one of Sophia when she was a baby
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: and I love that one as well. When a girl's
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: I mean, that was in a frame, but as I looked,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: I got a bit upset. So I took it out
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: of the frame and put it away in my little
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: box because it was just too heartbreaking to look at.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: Every time I see that photograph, it reminds me of
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: the day the girls got taken.
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: As each year passed, Jackie came no closer to locating
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: her three daughters. The only clue she had was from
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: an Interpol intelligence report, which suggested they'd been moved from
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: Saudi Arabia to Yemen, where ex-husband Sadeq had been born.
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: He'd lived there in his youth, and it was a
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: place where he still had lots of family and friends. Sadly,
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: civil war broke out between the north and south of Yemen,
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: meaning Jackie's children were trapped in.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: A war zone.
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: When the war began, the rebels seemed confident enough.
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: Cardiff's Yemeni community was outraged by what had happened to
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: Jackie's girls. This included Sadek's father, Hussein, who publicly condemned
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: what his son had done. The story was picked up
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: in the 1990s by journalist Val Bodden, who was to
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: become a lifelong friend of Jackie's.
• 19:23
  Speaker 5: I've been working as a journalist for 20 years and
• 19:27
  Speaker 5: I just had my own daughter who was three years old.
• 19:31
  Speaker 5: So it just resonated with me. You can do loads
• 19:34
  Speaker 5: of stories about this sort of thing. But it really
• 19:38
  Speaker 5: struck me, the thought that anything could happen to my daughter.
• 19:43
  Speaker 5: And I just really communicated well with Jackie. And I
• 19:47
  Speaker 5: just wanted to help her as much as I could.
• 19:50
  Speaker 5: It became more than a story as a reporter to me.
• 19:54
  Speaker 5: One of the biggest things that struck me, you know,
• 19:57
  Speaker 5: that she wouldn't move anywhere because she thought, if they
• 20:00
  Speaker 5: ever want to get in touch with me, I'm going
• 20:01
  Speaker 5: to be here for them. And after so long a time.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: It was just.
• 20:08
  Speaker 5: It's just heartbreaking, really. It was a heartbreaking story. And
• 20:11
  Speaker 5: I have done heartbreaking stories before, but this was the
• 20:15
  Speaker 5: one that just touched my heart.
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: Despite Val joining forces with Jackie, keeping this story in
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: the press, the years passed with no news of her daughters.
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: It's been learned today that up to 30,000 stayed in
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: Chernobyl itself.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: Until just a few days ago.
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: The Berlin Wall, that ugly symbol of a divided world,
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: was breached by... Diana, Princess of Wales, has died after
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: a car crash in Paris. Jackie's decision not to move
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: away from her family home in Ely proved to be
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: one of the best she ever made. as in early 2001,
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: she received a letter in Arabic through her letterbox.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: It was just a normal day, just got up, I thought, post-chem,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: I seen the foreign postmark, I thought, oh, what's this?
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: And I was like, total, total crazy, I think, gone mad,
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: and I'm thinking, I've got to get this translated, and
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: who's it from, and things like that, and I'm thinking,
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: you know, it's got to be, and when it was
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: from Rihanna, it was just tears of joy.
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: The letter was from her eldest daughter, Rahana, who'd recently
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: got married. Free from the control of her father, she'd
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: remembered where she'd lived as a little girl. To my
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: dear mother, Jacqueline, I am longing to see you. I
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: am very well and married to a very good and
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: kind man. Send me a photograph of yourself so I
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: can get over the heartbreak of being so far away
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: from you for such a long time. Please reply so
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: my inner joy will grow and we can carry on
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: writing to each other. I ask Allah that this letter
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: reaches you. Your loving daughter, Rahana.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: I'm just so overwhelmed. I couldn't believe that my daughter
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: had actually remembered me and written me in Arabic explaining
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: where they were living and Nadia and Sophia. You know,
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: the girls were OK. Nadia was married, obviously, now. And
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: I kept in touch for a good few months back
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: and forth, writing letters. Spoke to Nadia a couple of times,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: not so much Sophia, cos she was still living with
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: her dad. And I planned to go to Yemen and
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: I said, well, I'm going to come out there. You know,
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: I want to see my daughters. And when I applied
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: for a visa, the British Embassy wasn't happy. They said, yeah,
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: I've got to go at my own risk. They said
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: they weren't going to be responsible for me if anything
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: happened out there. It was on my own back. And
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: I was strong-willed. I thought, well, I'm going. I'll take
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: the risk for my daughters and I'm going to Yemen.
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: Jackie had not travelled to Yemen alone. She went with
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: her friend and great supporter, the journalist Val Bodden.
• 23:20
  Speaker 5: She was actually very quiet on the plane, on the journey,
• 23:22
  Speaker 5: I think more because she was scared of flying than
• 23:25
  Speaker 5: anything else. But I do remember landing in Aden because,
• 23:31
  Speaker 5: you know, we were the only... two white women on
• 23:35
  Speaker 5: the plane, and we were questioned about why we were there,
• 23:39
  Speaker 5: which was really strange, you know? I thought, well, we're not...
• 23:43
  Speaker 5: We're here to see our daughters, you know?
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: We got off the plane, and there was old men
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: with guns and everything, and I was, like, shaking. I
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: was thinking, oh, my God, what have we got our
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: situation in? And as we walked from the door, They
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: started shouting in Arabic to us, and I was thinking,
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: what's going on? But that was the most scariest thing ever.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: Because you see them with the big rifles on their
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: thing and everything, and, you know, they just took, looked
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: at our passports, and they were just shouting at us,
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: and we didn't understand what they were saying, and so
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: they just locked us in this room and locked the
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: door and took our passports. I was really crying. It
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: was just horrendous. And I think, you know, we've got
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: ourselves in a really bad situation, you know? We're getting
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: put in jail. And all of a sudden, all the
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: shouting calmed down and we see this guy come into
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: the airport shouting at someone. Turns out he was Nadia's husband.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: And everything changed. Their attitude changed completely. We didn't check
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: our suitcases, just put a cross on them and said,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: you go, you go. And the girls were waiting outside
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: the airport for me. Couldn't see their face or anything
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: because they were completely covered over. There was a lot
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: of crying, hugging, kissing and I was so emotional and
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: I was just shaking, totally shaking because I couldn't believe
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: that These two young girls were my daughters. The last
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: time I'd seen them was like when they were five
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: and four. So you can imagine the emotions go through
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: my head. My heart was pounding and I'm literally shaking.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: And yeah, tears, tears, lots and lots of tears. Lots
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: of tears.
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: Once they'd made it out of the airport, Val removed
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: her video camera and began documenting Jackie's extraordinary trip to
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: the Yemen, where she was finally reunited with her daughters.
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: This is the first time this footage has ever been seen.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: Went back to Nadia's house, took a shot where they
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: were living, so poor, basically no running water, no toilet.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: just a hole in the floor, no cooker, just a
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: little camping stove, and very little food.
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: With everyone back at the house, the girls were able
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: to uncover their heads, allowing Jackie to see her daughter's
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: faces for the first time in over a decade.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: You could see they still looked the same as when
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: they were children. You could see, you know, their nadir
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: was still the same, and I was just so emotional,
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: you know. It was just unbelievable.
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: After so many years away from Wales, the girls remembered
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: very little English, but Nadia was confident enough to send
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: a message back to their family in Cardiff.
• 27:07
  Speaker 7: Hello, grandmother.
• 27:09
  Speaker 8: How are you? Fine?
• 27:11
  Speaker 4: How are you?
• 27:13
  Speaker 8: Ellie and Jane and Samantha. Yeah. And Lucy and Father Alan.
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: Jackie had also taken the handful of surviving family photos
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: to share with her daughters to remind them of their
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: childhood in Wales.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: This one is Nadia.
• 27:40
  Speaker 9: Me?
• 27:41
  Speaker 8: Yeah. At the kitchen. Yeah, in the kitchen. His father,
• 27:47
  Speaker 8: he's photographs, but he's not see me.
• 27:50
  Speaker 6: No.
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: As the girls were shown the pictures, they told Jackie
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: they had never seen a photograph of her before, because
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: their father had cut her out of the family snaps
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: in a bid to erase her entirely from their lives.
• 28:06
  Speaker 8: I don't want to see it. His wife is.
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: The joy Jackie had felt when meeting the girls was
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: spoiled by the circumstances she found them living in.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: So you could still see the remnants of the war,
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: you could see all the helicopter blades on the roof,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: you could still see the bullet holes in the walls
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: of the houses and just you could see all the,
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: you know, the engines and things have been blown down.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: I was just angry and very angry to think, you know,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: they were being brought to a country where there's been
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: so much war, so much famine. So obviously, you know,
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: food was an issue with them. You know, so obviously
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: they didn't have things that they could have had if
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: they'd been at home with me. They were just, weren't
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: allowed out and things like that, no freedom. And those
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: girls would never be able to grow up and go
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: to school or go to uni because Obviously, they were
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: planned to be married off anyway.
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: Both Nadia and Rohana were married, which had helped them
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: escape from their father's oppressive upbringing. Safiya, however, still lived
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: with him.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: We used to beat them and lock them in cupboards.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: No food. because they were part of me, so they
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: were treated really badly as well. And I just feel,
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: you know, really sorry, because those kids were taken and.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: No, they just had a... really bad life over there
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: they were taken by someone who didn't love them just
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: took them took took them just for spite and then
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: their life was ruined well they didn't didn't have no
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: one over there no family and i think they suffered
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: so badly the girls i mean their father didn't love
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: them and it was no lost love lost between them
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: but i think he just took it for spite so yeah.
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: Despite Jackie's emotional reunion with two of her daughters, the
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: fate of youngest daughter Sophia cast a long shadow over
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: the moment. Still only a teen, Sophia had still been
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: officially under her father's authority, so any effort to meet
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: her was fraught with difficulty and danger.
• 30:49
  Speaker 5: Because she was living with her father, we were scared
• 30:52
  Speaker 5: to meet with her in case it got back to him.
• 30:56
  Speaker 5: We suddenly got a call three days before we were
• 30:59
  Speaker 5: due to fly back, to say we could go to
• 31:01
  Speaker 5: the school and meet her. That was amazing. We didn't
• 31:06
  Speaker 5: know how it had come about, but I do remember
• 31:09
  Speaker 5: that was probably the scariest part of the week. There
• 31:12
  Speaker 5: wasn't a second thought really about going there because it
• 31:15
  Speaker 5: happened so suddenly. And of course she was excited to
• 31:18
  Speaker 5: go and meet her, but she was also scared for
• 31:21
  Speaker 5: her because she was worried that the father, her husband,
• 31:28
  Speaker 5: was going to be at the gate. You know, it's
• 31:31
  Speaker 5: a mixture of emotions, excitement, fear, trepidation.
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: She was obviously sent to school, Sophia. We planned to
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: travel to the school so I could meet her, and
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: they took me to school, and it was the most
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: scariest ride of my life because they were driving so
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: fast because we had a certain time to get there
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: before my ex-partner's husband turned up.
• 31:56
  Speaker 5: That was an amazing experience. We went into the school,
• 31:58
  Speaker 5: we were ushered in, taken into a side entrance, I think,
• 32:04
  Speaker 5: and we were just taken into a room.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: The teachers locked us in the room because they were
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: frightened in case he'd come in.
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: Jackie and Val had an anxious wait, not fully knowing
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: what to expect.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: Just looked at me and I see this young beautiful
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: looking girl but she was the image of me she
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: was like my double and I was thinking my god
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: it's Sophia.
• 32:34
  Speaker 5: You only had to look at her to see that
• 32:36
  Speaker 5: Jackie was her mother the likeness was so real the.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: Teacher said this is your mum and I just looked
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: at me like to say well I've never seen this
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: person in my life.
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: Sophia's father had remarried and had told his daughter that
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: his wife was her mother.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: And I sat down with her and I explained to her,
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: I said, what happened with the dad? Your father took
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: you when you were a very small baby. And I'm
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: your mum, I'm from Wales. And she went, I don't understand.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: Because she didn't understand that he was married to that woman.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: And she always thought that that was her mother. And
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: I said, no, I'm your mum. I said, you know,
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: I can prove it. So I showed her a a
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: bit of stupid and some little pictures of, obviously, when
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: she was a baby and things like that. And she
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: started to come round then. And then she was just
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: hugging me and kissing me and it just got really
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: emotional and... It's just unbelievable to think that after all
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: these years, I've actually, you know, got to meet my
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: daughter when she was only 18 months old when she went.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: I just wanted to take her home, but obviously I
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: couldn't because she didn't have a passport or anything like that. So, yeah,
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: she just, you know, broke down in tears because she
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: knew that I was a man, and the emotion was
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: just all there in her face and everything. We just
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: hugged each other and kissed each other, and I think
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: it was the most incredible moment of my life, to
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: know that I've actually met Sophia.
• 34:37
  Speaker 7: MUSIC PLAYS.
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: Jackie was overjoyed to be reunited with Safiyyah. But how
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: had Safiyyah felt?
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: My name's Safiyyah. This is my story.
• 35:06
  Speaker 10: I was hoping, but I was afraid. The first time
• 35:09
  Speaker 10: I met her, I wanted to get to know her.
• 35:10
  Speaker 10: I wanted to ask her a lot of questions. I
• 35:12
  Speaker 10: wanted to talk to her. But at the time, she
• 35:14
  Speaker 10: was very young. I mean, she was about half an
• 35:18
  Speaker 10: hour old. I wanted to ask her questions, but I couldn't.
• 35:20
  Speaker 10: And then we got an inkling.
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: One of the.
• 35:22
  Speaker 10: Teachers came into the room, said, you'll have to go now.
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: We think he might be on his way. Well, we
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: didn't know what to think, really.
• 35:49
  Speaker 5: And so it was a very tearful, tearful farewell for
• 35:53
  Speaker 5: Jackie and Safiya.
• 35:55
  Speaker 10: It was a very tearful farewell for Jackie and Safiya.
• 35:58
  Speaker 10: It was a very tearful farewell for Jackie and Safiya.
• 36:03
  Speaker 10: It was a very tearful farewell for Jackie and Safiya.
• 36:05
  Speaker 10: It was a very tearful farewell for Jackie and Safiya.
• 36:10
  Speaker 10: It was a very tearful farewell for.
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: Jackie and Safiya. She just said, I want to come
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: home with you. And I said, you can't come home
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: with me, I said. She said, oh, don't leave me here.
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: And I said, I can't take you. And she literally
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: was clinging to my legs and screaming off, take me
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: with you, take me with you. And it was just horrendous.
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: The tears were just awful. And then all of a sudden,
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: it all started. Everybody started panicking. Everybody running around. And
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: I think, you know, what's going on? And he said, oh,
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: he's on his way, he's on his way. And I said,
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: who's on his way? Oh, yeah, an ex-husband.
• 36:54
  Speaker 5: We had to get out, basically, before he came. And
• 36:58
  Speaker 5: I think just at the back of Jackie's mind was just,
• 37:01
  Speaker 5: I don't care about him, she wouldn't be bothered about
• 37:03
  Speaker 5: seeing him face to face, but it's what would have
• 37:05
  Speaker 5: happened to Safiya afterwards.
• 37:08
  Speaker 10: I was in the house for about a month before
• 37:12
  Speaker 10: I went to school. They took me out the back way,
• 37:17
  Speaker 10: but as I was coming out, he was coming around
• 37:19
  Speaker 10: the corner, and he must have seen. And obviously, he
• 37:21
  Speaker 10: followed us to Nadia's house, and that's where all the
• 37:23
  Speaker 10: trouble started.
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: There was a lot of shouting and banging, And they said,
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: you hide, you hide. I said, why hide? He said,
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: your husband's sad looking for you. He have gun. He said,
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: he have gun outside. He says, he want to shoot you.
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: So they locked me in the room and I looked
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: out over the balcony and I couldn't see him, but
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: I could see all shouting and I could see this
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: crowd of men with all guns and stuff. And I
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: was really scared, I think, and I was shaking. I thought, oh,
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: my God, you know, I'm going to die here. He's
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: going to get into that building somehow. But luckily there
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: was enough of him to sort of protect me. But
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: that was really, really scary to think, you know, that
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: someone could do that. You know, your mother, those children,
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: and he wants to harm me. You know, he wants
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: to kill me.
• 38:48
  Speaker 3: The threat posed by her ex-husband was never far away,
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: and Jackie was desperate to get her daughters back to Wales.
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: She visited the British consulate in Yemen to ask what
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: her options were. They told her, under Yemeni law, Safiya
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: was still a minor and could not travel without the
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: permission of her father. However, Nadia and Rohana were adults
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: and entitled to British passports, therefore were free to travel
• 39:13
  Speaker 3: back to Wales with her. The family faced a dilemma.
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: Did the elder girls abandon their sister and husbands in
• 39:20
  Speaker 3: Yemen to start a new life in Cardiff with a
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: mother they'd only just met? Or did they let Jackie
• 39:25
  Speaker 3: return home alone? Together, they had decided that Jackie would
• 39:29
  Speaker 3: return to Cardiff and once the two girls had arranged
• 39:32
  Speaker 3: passports they would follow for a very special holiday.
• 39:36
  Speaker 8: I'll go to Cardiff and see you.
• 39:42
  Speaker 3: Jackie flew back to Wales happy in the knowledge that
• 39:45
  Speaker 3: her girls were coming home. A few weeks later, they
• 39:48
  Speaker 3: flew to Wales to see Jackie.
• 39:52
  Speaker 11: Rehana and Nadia were taken from this very house in
• 39:55
  Speaker 11: Ely by their father, Sadek Saleh, when they were just
• 39:58
  Speaker 11: four and five years old. Now aged 20 and 19
• 40:01
  Speaker 11: and married, the girls did get in touch by letter
• 40:04
  Speaker 11: in May. Jackie immediately flew out to the Yemen to
• 40:07
  Speaker 11: see them.
• 40:08
  Speaker 9: Very, very emotional, you know, crying, just to think that
• 40:12
  Speaker 9: they actually come home after 15 years. After all this time,
• 40:16
  Speaker 9: you know, all this, the fight I've done to get
• 40:18
  Speaker 9: them here, and it's actually happened, and they're actually here.
• 40:21
  Speaker 3: When you were growing up without mum.
• 40:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah... were you sad? Yeah, sad, all the time.
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: And what are you doing in Wales?
• 40:31
  Speaker 4: What things are you doing? Shop, yeah.
• 40:34
  Speaker 8: I shop, I go and get pictures of my mum
• 40:37
  Speaker 8: and my family, go and get a zoo, yeah.
• 40:40
  Speaker 4: It's nice, very nice, lovely. And the bridge is very nice.
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: Nadia and Rihanna came here for... I think we were
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: here for three months. But it was very hard because
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: Nadia couldn't settle. She had so many issues back and
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: forth at the hospital where she'd just literally go into
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: a shell and not speak to me and she'd literally
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: close down.
• 41:03
  Speaker 3: Yet it soon became clear that daughter Nadia was suffering
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: from what would later be diagnosed as PTSD as a
• 41:09
  Speaker 3: result of her traumatic past.
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: She said... My father, I hate my father. He used
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: to send us out when the war was going on.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: He used to send them out to look for food
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: and things like that. I mean, they were only small children.
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: And he sent them out to look for food when
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: the bombing was going on. You know, what kind of
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: father does that? She was like, maybe she was only
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: like eight or nine. And that must have been so
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: scary for them, knowing they could, any time, something, dreadful
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: could happen, a bomb could drop down. And she said, yeah,
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: they'd just send them out for food. And no thought
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: of safety and things like that.
• 41:51
  Speaker 3: Six weeks into the girls' visit, the world changed overnight.
• 41:55
  Speaker 3: The September 11th attack on the World Trade Centre saw
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: the globe engulfed with fear and uncertainty.
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: A hijacked American airliner had just smashed into the north
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: tower of the World Trade Centre.
• 42:06
  Speaker 3: As Muslim women in the West, the girls' husbands had
• 42:09
  Speaker 3: become fearful for them and asked that they return home. Reluctantly,
• 42:14
  Speaker 3: they did so. Even though Rahana and Nadia returned to Yemen,
• 42:18
  Speaker 3: Jackie was now very much in touch with her daughters,
• 42:21
  Speaker 3: including Safiyyah, who regularly wrote and phoned home. Back in Yemen,
• 42:26
  Speaker 3: Nadia and Rahana both started their own families. Between them,
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: they gave Jackie six grandchildren. As both Gil's families grew,
• 42:35
  Speaker 3: it became clear that Yemen would remain their home for
• 42:38
  Speaker 3: the foreseeable future. Jackie had been expecting news of another grandchild,
• 42:43
  Speaker 3: as Nadia had gone into hospital to give birth to
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: her fourth child.
• 42:48
  Speaker 10: They took me to the hospital. They told me that
• 42:50
  Speaker 10: my sister was born in the hospital.
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: I was very upset.
• 42:56
  Speaker 10: They told me that I had done the wrong thing.
• 42:58
  Speaker 10: I found her clean, with oxygen, and she had a
• 43:00
  Speaker 10: heart attack. It was a very difficult situation. They said
• 43:04
  Speaker 10: they couldn't do anything to her. She was tired from
• 43:10
  Speaker 10: the beginning, and it was difficult for her to carry.
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: So she made a mistake.
• 43:15
  Speaker 10: This caused her to be clean. Then they left her
• 43:19
  Speaker 10: clean for a long time. Then they moved her to
• 43:21
  Speaker 10: another hospital. This was the first hospital that affected her.
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: From here. They didn't have no blood for her, so
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: they put her in a little side room. Just let
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: her go to sleep and never wake up. Didn't have
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: no blood for us, so just let her.
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: They just let her die. I don't think anybody should
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: have to go through that, all that pain. Just because someone,
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: you know, does the one shoot.
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: It takes your children just for spite and just think,
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: you know, this is a life they should have had.
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: But she should still be alive now. She shouldn't have
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: been left to die. She went so young. She was
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: only 28. And left four beautiful children behind. And now
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: they haven't got a mother. And so what kind of
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: life will they have out there without their mum? She's
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: always on my mind, always. I always think of her
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: every day. Just think, she was the most beautiful child
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: in the world. And I didn't even get to say
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: goodbye to her. Just horrible. Never said goodbye.
• 45:31
  Speaker 3: The same year as Nadia's tragic death, Jackie's ex-husband, the
• 45:34
  Speaker 3: girl's father, Sadek Saleh, was killed in a car crash.
• 45:39
  Speaker 3: With Sadek dead, the family were able to put one
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: dark chapter behind them. And with Sadek no longer there
• 45:45
  Speaker 3: to control her, Safiya was free to pursue a life
• 45:48
  Speaker 3: of her own. She fell in love and married her husband, Labib.
• 45:52
  Speaker 3: The couple started a family that would grow to include
• 45:55
  Speaker 3: four children. But this joyous time was interrupted when war
• 45:59
  Speaker 3: erupted once again. As Jackie watched the conflict unfold on television,
• 46:18
  Speaker 3: her worries grew when all phone calls stopped. Eventually, she
• 46:23
  Speaker 3: received a letter from Safiya. Their home had been bombed
• 46:27
  Speaker 3: and they were lucky to escape with their lives. Safiya
• 46:35
  Speaker 3: sent home a video that showed her mother, the terrible
• 46:38
  Speaker 3: conditions they were now living in.
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: I was scared of children. I was very tired.
• 47:03
  Speaker 3: For many years, the family and their four small children
• 47:06
  Speaker 3: lived a perilous existence. They moved between bombed-out homes, and
• 47:10
  Speaker 3: for Safiyyah's husband, Labib, providing for his family had been
• 47:13
  Speaker 3: a constant struggle.
• 47:14
  Speaker 12: It was very difficult during the war, because the prices
• 47:23
  Speaker 12: went up and living conditions became very difficult. We fought
• 47:31
  Speaker 12: and worked to achieve living conditions. Alhamdulillah, Allah has given
• 47:35
  Speaker 12: us the opportunity to reach them. All those who were
• 47:42
  Speaker 12: thirsty from food and food. But the fear was from
• 47:47
  Speaker 12: the problems that happened recently. From the problems of the war,
• 47:54
  Speaker 12: from the killers and the problems.
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: I mean.
• 48:03
  Speaker 3: It was heartbreaking for Jackie to see her two granddaughters,
• 48:06
  Speaker 3: who'd been named after her and Lucy, suffering in that way.
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: They were living in such bad conditions. I mean, poverty
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: was so bad. The house they were living in, they
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: couldn't even go outside because they weren't safe for the
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: children because they were getting kidnapped. And just to see
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: horrible things like seeing the bodies on the floor of
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: you know, children and things like that. And I think
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: no child should ever see that kind of, you know, devastation, whatever. Obviously,
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: you know, it affects children that way.
• 48:47
  Speaker 3: After living in the shadow of war for many years
• 48:49
  Speaker 3: and still without a safe place to call home, Jackie
• 48:52
  Speaker 3: was determined for Sophia and her family to leave Yemen
• 48:55
  Speaker 3: and come to Cardiff. But they needed help to do so.
• 48:59
  Speaker 3: Once again, Jackie turned to the media for support.
• 49:03
  Speaker 13: A woman whose three daughters were abducted more than 30
• 49:06
  Speaker 13: years ago says she's desperate to bring her youngest home
• 49:09
  Speaker 13: to Wales. Jacqueline Saller's husband took their children to Yemen
• 49:13
  Speaker 13: in 1986. As war rages on, pushing millions to the
• 49:16
  Speaker 13: brink of starvation, Jackie wants to bring Safiya back to Cardiff.
• 49:20
  Speaker 3: 32 years ago, Jacqueline Salah's life changed... To get Safiya
• 49:24
  Speaker 3: and her family home meant raising money to buy flights,
• 49:27
  Speaker 3: British passports for her and the children, and a 12-month
• 49:30
  Speaker 3: visitor visa for Labib. With their story in the news
• 49:34
  Speaker 3: once more, the family started a crowdfunding page to raise
• 49:38
  Speaker 3: the funds. It was an overnight success, and the scene
• 49:41
  Speaker 3: was set for the family to come to Wales. February 2019,
• 49:47
  Speaker 3: and after decades of hoping, the moment has finally arrived
• 49:51
  Speaker 3: for Jackie. Sophia and her family are flying home to Wales.
• 49:57
  Speaker 3: Inside Jackie's house in Ely, preparations are underway with daughter
• 50:01
  Speaker 3: Lucy to welcome them. But fitting them all in may
• 50:04
  Speaker 3: be a challenge.
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: That would be a bit crowded. because I'd be squeezed
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: in one room, because my house is not that big.
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: I got things that they probably wouldn't have. I don't
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: know whether they had a telly over there, but things
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: like that, you know, so they were able to have
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: a comfortable bed to sleep in, sofa to sit on. So, yeah,
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: it'd be really nice, you know, the kids have their
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: own beds.
• 50:32
  Speaker 3: With Sophia's flight due to land in Heathrow in just
• 50:34
  Speaker 3: under five hours, Jackie sets off to meet her. She's
• 50:37
  Speaker 3: joined by family and supporters who work tirelessly alongside her
• 50:41
  Speaker 3: to see the family reunited.
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I just went to bed last night. I got
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: up about 2 o'clock. I went back to bed. Mr
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: Felicity woke up at 4 o'clock.
• 50:53
  Speaker 9: Did you?
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I was thinking, oh, I'm not going to
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: get back to sleep. It's just going to be like, oh,
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: I don't know, just, it's going to be.
• 51:00
  Speaker 7: Surreal.
• 51:02
  Speaker 4: Yeah, surreal.
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: You just think, is she really here? Am I dreaming?
• 51:05
  Speaker 5: I know.
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: You know, and after all these years of just fighting
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: to get the girls back, and I'm thinking, it's not,
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: you know, it's actually happening. She always knew that one day,
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: you know, that this would happen. And, well, I've never,
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: ever given up. The whole day I couldn't relax, I
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: couldn't sit still, just knowing that she could arrive any time. So, yeah,
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: it was really emotional, and I just wanted to see
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: Sophia after all these years. I'm a bag of nerves now.
• 51:34
  Speaker 11: I am.
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: I'm really psyched up now and I just can't wait
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: just to get off, you know, to meet her off
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: that plane. It's just, it's just like the last sort of,
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: my stomach's gone like butterflies and I'm thinking, oh God,
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: it's not long now before she'll be landing. I think
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: it'll be a lot of emotion, you know, so I
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: think a lot of crying, I think. It's not going
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: to be easy and I'm just going to be, just
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: have goosebumps and all that. It's just, I just can't
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: wait now. It's just, I just want to get it
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: done and overdone with. I can't wait to get off
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: that plane. I mean, a mother's love is nothing you
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: could ever, ever, ever lose. You know, no matter what,
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: where they are or what they do, you'll always be
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: there and always be, you know, I got all goosey.
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: Really goosey, yeah. Really goose bumps, yeah, yeah. I'm there now.
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: I'm one step away now from meeting my daughter after
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: 35 years. So yeah, that's gonna be my jumpy stomach.
• 52:38
  Speaker 3: The last time Jackie saw Safiya at the school in Yemen,
• 52:41
  Speaker 3: she was only a teenager. With the family clear through immigration,
• 52:45
  Speaker 3: Jackie and Safiya can finally be reunited.
• 53:10
  Speaker 7: You know, you see this young girl coming through to
• 53:19
  Speaker 7: the airport, and you think, you know, that's my daughter,
• 53:21
  Speaker 7: and you get so emotional, and seeing the grandchildren as well.
• 53:26
  Speaker 14: And, like, she's not a child no more, she's a
• 53:29
  Speaker 14: fully grown woman. I don't believe her. When I saw them, honestly,
• 53:33
  Speaker 14: I was shocked. I mean, I describe it as a
• 53:35
  Speaker 14: strange feeling, honestly. I'm going to miss you so much.
• 54:13
  Speaker 3: As well as Safiya, there are four grandchildren to meet
• 54:16
  Speaker 3: for the first time, including granddaughter Asala, who is the
• 54:20
  Speaker 3: same age as Safiya when she was abducted all those
• 54:23
  Speaker 3: years ago.
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: Asala is so much like Safiya, and every time I
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: see her, I've got so much love for her because
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: she reminds me exactly the same as Safiya when she
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: was growing up. And I think... I think I have
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: another chance now to get back what I lost with
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: Asala and the other children as well. Oh, she's so beautiful.
• 54:48
  Speaker 8: She's gorgeous.
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: The emotion of love come over me. I just wanted
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: to hug and kiss her and just say, you know,
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: I just wish this never happened. You know, we wish
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: we'd never been apart and... You know, I wish I
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: could make things right, you know, and take away all
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: what you've been through, you know, and give you back
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: your childhood.
• 55:18
  Speaker 3: Four hours after touching down at Heathrow, the family is
• 55:21
  Speaker 3: back at Jackie's house in Ely.
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: Oh, it's so cold. I just put the heating on, OK?
• 55:25
  Speaker 8: It's freezing.
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: It's my house.
• 55:29
  Speaker 8: It's OK?
• 55:29
  Speaker 9: Yeah.
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: Dream come true, so hopefully we're just all squashing tonight
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: and they'll have a good sleep. It's going to take
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: a while for them to settle in to obviously the
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: way of life here but it shouldn't be a problem
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: you know and get used to you know everything here
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: going out because obviously you know it's going to be
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: difficult for the children as well because obviously you know
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: here's a different way of life but hopefully the girls
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: they've already adapted anyway they haven't stopped Whatever, isn't it? Playing, singing.
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: But I'm hoping they'll settle down and have a nice
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: life and just live normal like normal people do, you know,
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: safely and not have to worry about money or food
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: or anything like that. Yeah, so that's all I want
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: for her, to be safe and the kids to be safe.
• 56:31
  Speaker 3: A future that once seemed like only a dream is
• 56:34
  Speaker 3: now a reality for the family.
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: They can do things which they never could do in Yemen.
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: Simple things like the park, which they love, and just
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: being able to go outside and freedom and not have
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: to worry about war and no food. So, yeah, the
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: future's looking fantastic now. It's a dream come true.
• 56:56
  Speaker 12: She's kind and kind.
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: She's nice. I can't describe her like that. She's different
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: from what they described her as.
• 57:07
  Speaker 14: She's kind and kind.
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: And she's the same.
• 57:10
  Speaker 10: She likes to please you and give you everything.
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: She doesn't like to annoy you. You look for her.
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: You see her. You see her way. You see her mother.
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: I say to anybody, whoever lost a child, or, you know,
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: that child comes home, you'll never lose that bond or
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: the love. Because it's always there in your heart. Always. Hi,
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: I'm Jackie. This is my daughter, Sophia. Hi, I am Sophia.
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: This is mum, Jackie.
• 57:53
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 58:04
  Speaker 9: Thank you.
• 58:36
  Speaker 8: Thank you.