Pink Floyd star uses private jet to reunite mother with her kidnapped children
Written by News on 23/01/2019
Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters has used his private jet to reunite a mother with her children – more than four years after they were kidnapped and taken to Syria by their father.
The rock star flew Felicia Perkins-Ferreira, from Trinidad and Tobago, to the Iraq-Syria border to meet her sons Ayyub, seven, and Mahmud, 11.
She had not seen the boys since their father, Abebe Oboi Ferreira, took them to live in Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliphate in 2014.
The man is believed to have died while fighting in Raqqa in 2017, and the boys were abandoned by the side of the road by their father’s new wife.
The children have spent the last few months living in a camp for the families of IS fighters in northern Syria after being picked up by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), according to The Telegraph.
Ms Perkins-Ferreira, who has only had sporadic contact with her sons since 2014, said she was “really, really grateful” to the people who helped her sons, and would like to meet them “all in one and embrace them”.
One of those involved, lawyer and rights activist Clive Stafford-Smith, a personal friend of the singer, told AFP he tracked down the children’s mother and then contacted Waters, who had become interested in their plight.
Mr Stafford-Smith explained: “[Waters] agreed to pay for it all and flew the mother over from Trinidad.
“We’re going to make sure that they get on with a really productive, decent life.”
The lawyer said one of the boys aspires to be a professional cricketer, while the other has dreams of becoming a professional footballer.
Islamic State has lost most of its territory in recent years.
Kurdish-led forces have rounded up hundreds of foreigners who allegedly fought for IS, but they also hold more than 1,200 children and 500 women related to them.
The Kurds have repeatedly called on their home countries to take them back.
(c) Sky News 2019: Pink Floyd star uses private jet to reunite mother with her kidnapped children
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