DUBAI: A Jordanian TV presenter has been reunited with her 3-year-old son 20 days after human traffickers kidnapped him in Turkey and smuggled him to Idlib in Syria.
Ahlam Ajarmeh posted a video of the emotional reunion as she tearfully hugged her son, Alwaleed bin Waleed, on the Syrian-Turkish border.
“The hardest 20 days of my life when my son was kidnapped. I didn’t see him, hear his voice, or know his whereabouts. I spent 20 days without food or sleep, hoping to wake up from this nightmare,” Ajarmeh captioned her post.
Alwaleed went missing on July 5 in Istanbul where the family lives. Ajarmeh said that after extensive communication with Turkish authorities, she learned her son was kidnapped by a gang and smuggled to Idlib “in a manner that endangered his life.”
Following search efforts in the country and northern Syria, Turkish authorities were able to identify the kidnappers and the organization to which Alwaleed was trafficked.
The boy was soon returned to his mother “after long and cruel hours of waiting on the Turkish-Syrian border, which I will never forget,” Ajarmeh said.
“I would like to thank everyone who helped me through this ordeal, starting from the Turkish authorities who devoted their time and effort to bring Alwaleed back, to the officials at the Jordanian embassy in Ankara who provided me with all kinds of support during this time,” Ajarmeh said.
Ajarmeh called for more efforts to protect children against human trafficking. “Stop the trade,” she said.
