THE grandmother of a schoolboy, who is being held in a Middle Eastern children’s centre for the second time, has urged the UK Government to investigate his human rights.

Fiona Oomes’s 10-year-old grandson Jamie has now been detained in the children’s centre, located on the edge of a desert near Dubai, since July.

He was initially held there last year, but was released just before Christmas.

It came after Jamie visited his father in 2017, who is from Wylam but lived and worked in Dubai, and refused to return to his mother who lived in France.

After he refused during numerous visits to court and police stations, the authorities in the United Arab Emirates detained him in the children’s centre, but following pressure and a Save Jamie petition, he was temporarily released just before Christmas to his dad in Dubai.

“Having him back for Christmas last year was really, really lovely,” said Fiona, who lives in Wylam. “He was so excited. It was nearly bed time when we arrived and after a bit I said ‘perhaps it is time to go to bed’, but he said ‘I’m not going to bed, I’m staying with you’. It was a really lovely Christmas.”

However, Fiona said that Jamie had agreed to go back to the centre in July, when it was anticipated that his father would be arrested because Jamie had not returned to France.

Fiona said: “He is a very mature child and he is very aware of the situation. He said he would rather stay in the foundation than go to France, but it just seems that he doesn’t seem to have any human rights and nobody is listening to him. He is looked after in that he is fed, but he is growing up in an Arab environment without his family and I just think it is tragic.

“I think the UK Government should be investigating his human rights and the way he is being treated.”

The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office was contacted for comment.