Costa Del Sol Official Tells Expat Mom Her Mixed Race Son Isn’t Hers

An expat mom attempting to renew her son’s ID document was told by a Spanish civil servant she didn’t believe the boy was hers.

Suzanne Dave, originally from Cheshire and married to a Spanish national, was trying to renew her son Arun’s NIE identity document at the Torre del Mar police station when an officer repeatedly told her the boy wasn’t hers as there was no family resemblance. Suzanne left the police station in tears, and the blatant discrimination has left her in shock.

Speaking with reporters from a local English language newspaper, she said the incident was so upsetting because it seemed the official simply had it in for her and her boy. Perhaps, she added, it was his skin colour or maybe the fact that he speaks fluent Spanish and looks Spanish and I’m obviously a British woman or, worse still, the woman hated the thought of my being married to a Spaniard. Arun’s father is an Indian national now living and working in the UK as a chemical engineer.

According to Suzanne, the problem started after she’d decided to renew 16 year-old Arun’s

NIE so that he could learn to drive. At first she’d handed over all the necessary documents to a female interviewer and everything seemed to be progressing in the right direction until another woman took over the interview, asking which documents had been provided. After Suzanne had given her Arun’s old passports, birth certificate and NIE, she said she wasn’t satisfied and insisted on a full, certified birth certificate with a copy translated into Spanish.

Somewhat confused and very upset, Suzanne got the required document and translated copy and returned to the police station, only to be refused again by the same woman saying she still believed Arun wasn’t Suzanne’s son. A few days later, she tried again and got lucky when another official simply printed out the boy’s card within 10 minutes of their arrival. Suzanne is now preparing an official complaint to Malaga’s Guardia Civil, after having been told ‘off the record’ she’d been treated in a disgraceful manner by the unnamed woman official.