FATIMA ALDARWISH was just two years old when she was taken from her home in Cork, separated from her mother and brought to Saudi Arabia.
After thirteen years and countless attempts to bring Fatima home from the Middle Eastern country, where she lives with her father, mother Victoria O'Leary is devastated by the Irish government's lack of action and has set up a petition to force them to acknowledge the injustice and put it right.
Speaking to The Irish Post, Victoria told her and Fatima's story.
"My daughter was taken from me under false pretences," Victoria begins.
"I've been fighting non-stop because the way her father took her from me was completely wrong.
"My parents haven't seen her since she left when she was two, and both of them are in their seventies. My fear is that they could die before they ever see their granddaughter again."
Fatima, seen here as a young child, will turn 15 in March (Photo: Victoria O'Leary)In 2017, during a visit in Bahrain, after being unable to secure a visa to Saudi Arabia, Fatima found the courage to tell her father that she wanted to return to Ireland with her mother.
"He came over the border to Bahrain at two in the morning," Victoria explains.
"He gave Fatima false hope by saying 'We'll talk about it in the car' - but as soon as she got into the car he drove off in front of my eyes. And two hours later he sent me a text message saying that I'll never see her again."
Since then the mother and daughter have been mostly keeping in touch by phone messages.
The teenager, who was born in Ireland and has an Irish passport, has a Cork accent when she speaks but cannot read or write English and has to resort to Google translate when texting her mother.
"It's so hard trying to keep her positive and hopeful that she'll come home one day when I myself have no idea what's going to happen."
"Fatima keeps talking about what's going to happen when she comes home," Victoria adds.
"She tells me 'Mom, we're going to get me a new bed', and she's even sending me photos of the type of bed she wants and what she wants to buy when she comes home."
Victoria and Fatima together during a visit several years ago (Photo: Victoria O'Leary)But Fatima's desperation to come home is causing heartbreak for Victoria, who, after a decade of fighting her case with both the Saudi Arabian and the Irish government but getting nowhere, fears there is nothing more she can do.
"When I heard that Leo Varadkar is bringing the ISIS Bride [Lisa Smith] home I literally had a meltdown," Victoria admits.
"It's so not fair. The government have been aware of my daughter for years and point-blank refuse to bring her home.
"They brought back Ibrahim Halawa from Egypt, they're bringing back the ISIS bride and her daughter from Syria, so why can't they do that for my daughter?
"She's asking to come home. She wants to come home.
"I'm at my wit's end - I don't know what to do with myself except to keep the case out there in the public."
With Fatima due to turn 15 in March 2020, Victoria's fears for her daughter are growing, particularly as Fatima has told her she thinks she will be married off.
"I don't want her to be married off," Victoria says tearfully.
"She's too young. She told me that she wants to study hard and become an air hostess so she can travel, because she's literally just been stuck in her house for years.
"All she wants is to come home. She has no life over there. She has very little friends, she's confined to the house.
"I want to be able to give her a positive future, to get her home and give her a proper education and give her the dreams that she wants."
Because of special circumstances, earlier this year Victoria was permitted to see her daughter in Saudi Arabia for five days, but the brief reunion was bittersweet.
"That week with the two of us was amazing," Victoria recalls.
"We were laughing and joking. I'd be in the kitchen and she'd come out and scare me, you know, like a child does.
"All of these small little silly games between a mother and daughter - she's been denied this. I got to brush her hair, bring her to the pharmacy to get cream for her face, teach her skincare.
"The hardest part is when I have to leave and say goodbye. It's just torturous, because I have no idea when I'm going to see her again.
"Since then it's been even harder because she's asking more and more to come home."
The mother and daughter were able to briefly reunite earlier this year (Photo: Victoria O'Leary)"I'm trying everything I possibly can," Victoria continues. "I've got all the old newspaper articles and petitions so that, please God, when she comes home I'll be able to show her all the effort I made. I feel so guilty that I can't do anything more."
Victoria is using the Change.org petition to raise public awareness for her daughter's situation, because, as she says, "I need people who will support me in bringing my daughter home".
"It's very hard when you know the government knows what's going on but they won't do anything.
"The government knows that she exists and that she wants to come home. They can't just ignore it and hope that she goes away. It's not going to go away.
"Leo Varadkar said it himself - every child has the right to be safe. Every Irish child has the right to be with their mother.
"But I'm without my child. His comments are for someone else, not for me."
Directly addressing those with the power to bring Fatima home, Victoria says: "Bring her home. She has every right to come home. How would you feel if it was your child?
"She wants to come home. She needs to come home. I just want her home.
"I keep screaming and crying but nothing is reaching them."
To lend your voice to Victoria's battle, you can sign the Change.or petition 'Bring Cork Girl Fatima Home' here.
