Irish mother pleads for help as daughter & granddaughter stuck in UAE

Trish McCabe, from Dublin, is begging the Irish government to get her daughter and granddaughter home. “It’s not that complicated”, she says.

Her daughter Alma, 36, and granddaughter Isabella, 4, have been stuck in Abu Dhabi since March 2022 as her German ex-husband put a travel ban on Isabella. The UAE family courts have awarded Alma full custody and parental responsibility but the Irish Embassy has so far not pushed the UAE to delete a travel ban placed on Isabella during a custody dispute.

“My daughter has been through an unbelievable traumatic time in the Emirates. It’s been hell but she’s won all parental rights and thought she’d be able to return home to Ireland. She’s won everything. All she wants is to come home to her family and the only thing standing in her way is a local travel ban.