March 2020, in this very column, I wrote about the plight of a man who has not seen his children for almost three years. The man in question put up a tent and staged an 11-day hunger strike outside the social development department.

He did this in a bid to draw attention to his ordeal and to ultimately see his two children, who moved in with their grandparents after their mother died. He said the children's maternal grandparents did not like him much, citing the nationality and religious beliefs as possible reasons for him being barred from seeing his children...