It has been nine months since Mariam Soumah last saw her daughter. This 23-year-old Guinean now lives in Conakry, while her baby, Sabina, is being held in an orphanage in Belarus against her mother's wishes.
According to Mariam Soumah and several human rights organizations, Belarusian authorities forcibly deported the young migrant to Guinea several months ago, without her child. A case which provoked the indignation of UN experts, NGOs and Guinean diplomats.
"I begged them not to do that", Mariam Soumah told AFP, showing recent photos on her phone of Sabina, who celebrated her first birthday in November.
To escape poverty, the young woman explains that she crossed several African countries before reaching Belarus, in the hope of reaching the European Union. In recent years, this migration route has grown, with the EU accusing President Alexander Lukashenko's regime of encouraging crossings to Europe via Belarus.
Attracted by a promise of a student visa, Mariam Soumah chose this route to avoid a sea crossing. "I didn’t want to go to Europe by sea", she explains.
But her journey changes when she tries to renew her visa. Pregnant, she gave birth prematurely in November 2024. Sabina then weighs only 600 grams. The baby is placed in intensive care and survives thanks to the intervention of doctors.
Shortly after, Mariam claims that she is forbidden from seeing her daughter without paying significant medical expenses. She was then imprisoned for violating migration rules, then forcibly returned to Guinea without her child.
