Messy situation - pregnant with wfb's baby

[Namechanged140525]

Very tricky situation, I am neither of these people, but I'm trying to help as much as I can but don't know what advice to give. I am friends with Sarah and know of Joe.

Let's call the woman Sarah and the man Joe.

Sarah is a British citizen, she is 45 years oldand has four children, 20, almost 18, 13, and 10 (two eldest and two youngest have different fathers)

Sarah divorced her first husband after he became a drug addict, her second husband suddenly passed away. A year or two later she met a 20 year old man, Joe (now 24), non-British (this is relevant for the story) on a dating app. They dated for a couple of years but decided to break up as Joe's parents are very religious and wouldn't accept Sarah.
Sarah and Joe remain best friends and have casual sex.
A while later, Joe announces that since his student visa's expired, he has to move back to his home country (all his family including parents and siblings still live in the UK).
Sarah offers to go to his home country and the two youngest kids to visit.
Sarah falls in love with the country despite not speaking the language and decides to move there a few months later with her two youngest children.

Joe and Sarah are still casual, he sometimes sleep over at hers, he doesn't have a permanent address and airbnb hops, but she stays at his from time to time too. Joe gets along with the children and even accompanied them and Sarah on the kids' first day of school.

Sarah unexpectedly gets pregnant. Joe asks her not to tell his parents and suggests an abortion, Sarah wants to keep the baby and tells his parents, in the hope that they will make him see some sense.
The whole family blocks her and Joe ghosts her, move out from his airbnb, and is nowhere to be found.

Sarah is a (smallish) social media influencer.
She calls him out and publicly posts his name and socials.

Joe is unaware of it and shared all his details including his phone number on said socials.
He doesn't want to be a father, he is now engaged to a girl his age as his parents disapprove of the age gap.
Joe and Sarah live in a religious country where having children out of wedlock is a crime.

What would you do?
Also, would you let Joe know?
Sarah refuses to take down his details

She sold her house and is living off that + working. Her wages will be significantly higher converted in to local currency. In UK she would be having house expenses (mortgage maybe, bills etc) and a pound is a pound. It is entirely possible but money and luck soon run out.

So, she insists on bringing drama and potential danger into her and her children's lives with a string of reckless poor choices, and she doesn't listen very well.

I'd probably just distance myself from her, to be honest. She sounds exhausting.

Clearly, @Lentilweaver, she wasn’t.

I don’t think you will be able to sell this plot outline.

Was it a real lawyer, because I'm pretty sure that's not a thing.

If she has the baby there and the dad or his family decides they do want it will she be baby to bring it home?

Yep, my bad.

I wouldn’t believe a word of what Sarah tells you.
There is no solicitor that would tell her she can’t get arrested if she isn’t a citizen, I have never heard anything so ridiculous and it seems like you are buying her version of events.
She is going to get herself in a whole lot of trouble, she has not made this move for the good of her children, she is selfish, feckless and honestly doesn’t sound like a great mum

Joe deserves absolutely no consideration. He made a baby and doesn’t plan to take care of his child. He is a bad person and doesn’t deserve any sympathy.

Despite that, Sarah needs to start acting like a responsible mother of 5 and make sure she doesn’t risk running afoul of local laws or getting stuck in an international custody battle that keeps her separated from some subset of her children. It’s very likely that her best course of action is to return to her home country and change her contact information so that Joe has a difficult time locating her if he ever changes his mind.

course she can be arrested. both for sex outside marriage which will become obvious when she seeks maternity care and they ask for proof of marriage.

Some countries will also arrest her for her sm posts criticizing the man.

Real chance once the baby is born the father will change his mind and will get custody.

crazy situation she has put herself and her children in.

not even getting into living there illegally and working illegally. If she doesn't want to go to prison and lose ALL her children she'd be best coming home ASAP

Thank you everyone.

Regarding the school situation, I am not sure how she got away with it. All I know is that her kids go to school (I saw a picture of them in their uniform), and that she has a flat, and I think a bank account (I was on the phone to her on her way to the bank), I know that much is true.

Joe is now saying he was groomed and coerced, and that he felt stuck and unable to say no to her wanting to be more than friends with him.

I don't know if he's been contacted following the videos and posts about him.

She was vague about the lawyer, all she told me was that she found one and that I didn't need to worry about custody or her being charged with a crime.
She could very much be making this up.

She said she asked her workplace whether they would be happy with her working abroad before moving and they apparently said yes.

It does seem she is staying there in the hope that he does come back, whether she wants to admit it or not.

She also recently converted to his religion, and frankly I do think part of that decision was to perhaps make his parents accept her.

I feel for the children. They loved him and grew attached to him. They know about the baby and Joe leaving and it is causing her 13 year old a lot of anguish.

Her two eldest are still in the UK living with their dad.

Lol. That's not how it works in any country. Sarah's telling porkies.

I wouldn't believe a word of what Sarah tells you

Me neither.

A while later, Joe announces that since his student visa's expired, he has to move back to his home country (all his family including parents and siblings still live in the UK)

How does this make sense, @Namechanged140525 in the context of the rest of your story?

That’s true. Hard to comment constructively without knowing what kind of place it is.

Sarah’s an idiot who isn’t capable of putting her kids first. Thankfully she is almost at the end of her reproductive span.
Honestly, I’d remove her from my life unless was my sister or something. Don’t look back. Just thanks G-d this isn’t you or your loved ones in this ridiculous and entirely self made situation. Poor kids.

That's the only bit that does make sense . Just because lots of family members have the right to reside doesn't mean they all do.

What an unusual situation!

Sarah is an idiot! That is all

What an absolutely shit lawyer. Of course she can be arrested.

She's made herself and her children extremely vulnerable.

She won't be "in love with the country" if she ends up in prison and / or has her baby taken away from her, and will no doubt bitterly regret not leaving when she had the chance. She will also need her support network around her as a single parent, aside from the other problems.

What "Joe" is or isn't doing, is irrelevant.

As a friend, all you can do is advise and support, but tbh it sounds a lot like your friend enjoys drama and is unlikely to make a sensible decision.

I'm picturing Morocco. Sex outside marriage is illegal there, but in some areas, it's usual for locals to turn a blind eye to unmarried foreigners sharing a hotel room. I don't think the same applies if one partner is Moroccan, though.

Well yes, that's obvious, but OP also says:

[Once that child is born his family will pressure him to take the baby and cut her out.] That's my worry exactly! I am scared Joe's mum will want to play mum to the baby and Sarah ends up losing him/her.

How is that happening if Joe's mum is in the UK?

I'm struggling to believe this is true! Where is this magical country where bills are only £40 a month and she can work, get a bank account and her kids go to school without being legal.....

She doesn't have any family besides her four children.

She went no contact with her parents (who were abusive) and siblings and her in-laws passed away.

That's why she is so reluctant to move back.

Joe's mum has a house in that country. From what I know of her, her moving back to that country wouldn't be surprising.
None of them are planning on staying in the UK for the very long term.