Laurence Dollimore
A BRITISH expat has been told her mixed race son ‘didn’t look enough like her’ while attempting to renew his NIE identity document.
Suzanna Dave, 45, ‘burst into tears’ as she left Torre del Mar police station after a civil servant repeatedly said she ‘didn’t believe’ her son was hers.
The alleged discrimination has shaken the mother, who is now planning an official denuncia over the incident.
“It was so upsetting,” Suzanne, from Cheshire, told the Olive Press.
“This woman just had it in for us, it was either because of the colour of my son’s skin or the fact that he looks Spanish and I’m a ‘guiri’, maybe she hated the idea I had married a Spanish man.”
Son Arun, 16, who speaks fluent Spanish has lived here for 13 years.
His father Sam, who works as a chemical engineer in the UK, is Indian.
The problems started when Suzanne and Arun, who is in the middle of sitting his IGCSEs, first attempted to renew his NIE so he could learn how to drive.
“I took every document possible,” said Suzanne, “we had a lovely woman and all was going fine until another woman intervened.
“She said repeatedly that Arun looked ‘very different’ to me in his old NIE card photo.
“She asked what documents we had – which included his old NIE, passports and birth certificate – and said it was not enough ‘proof’ that he was mine.”
The woman, who reportedly has a reputation for being aggressive, said Suzanne would have to come back with a ‘full’ birth certificate – as British ones don’t include the parents’ names – and an officially translated copy.
When Suzanne returned with the new documents, the woman intervened AGAIN and said what she had brought was not enough – despite having every passport since he was born, his birth book and full birth certificate.
“She just kept saying ‘I don’t believe he’s your son’,” Suzanne recalled.
“It’s so upsetting when you have brought your kid up for 16 years and someone doubts that they are yours.”
Suzanne eventually got lucky when she went in last Friday, one of the other employees printed out his card within 10 minutes before the woman had come into the office.
“They had obviously prepared everything beforehand, they rushed through our appointment and we had everything within 10 minutes.”
Suzanne is currently preparing an official denuncia for the Guardia Civil in Malaga, after being told off the record the official had acted ‘disgracefully’.
The Olive Press was unable to speak to anyone at the office, before going to print.
Have you experienced discrimination at the Torre del Mar NIE office? Or any NIE office? Contact newsdesk@theolivepress.es
