Sharjah 24: Sharjah Social Services Department (SSSD) developed a new system for children visits tailored to Corona conditions. The new system that aims to a safe visit, is entitled (External visits, Safety and Stability) to ensure safer visits to children.

The “external visit book” is the new system or the new method through which the visit is implemented, whereas the book is handed to the defendant and a letter is submitted to the court. The visit follow-up is undertaken by phone calls to ensure the progress of the external visit that is kept in record.

Fayza Hassan Khabab, director of the Family Forum Centre affiliated to the Sharjah Department of Social Services, revealed that the number of external visits beneficiaries, which is, children meeting their families outside the centre, since the beginning of the pandemic, has reached 143 visits, while the Centre provided 2458 services in total.

Visits come in different types: the internal visit, whereas parents visit children in the Centre, and the other party is not allowed to accompany the child, outside the Centre, for some reason.

Second, the accompanied visit, whereas parents can take children out of the Centre, for several hours, and return them after the end of that period of time.

Third is the overnight stay, whereas children stay overnight, with the parent requesting the visit, and returning children again after a specific period of time.

The fourth type is the visit according to the external visit book developed during the pandemic.

There is another type of visits, which is the electronic service allowing inmates of the punitive and correctional facilities to see their families inside or outside the country “through an electronic platform in coordination with Punitive and Correctional Department at Sharjah Police. Separated couples are also allowed to see their wards based on a decision issued, in 20217, by the Sharia Court or the courts of Sharjah, whereas parents have the right to see their children.  

Fayza Khabab concluded that visits aim to protect the psychological wellbeing of children and parents.