An international child rescue centre has agreed to take care of a 10-year-old Indian boy whose parents had abandoned him in Bahrain.

Raja was abandoned by his Sri Lankan mother when he was two and left to fend for himself when his Indian father was deported last August. He was born out of wedlock and was never officially registered.

The only way Raja can get those papers is if his father Prasad signs them, but he is not co-operating, the Gulf Daily News reported on Thursday.

The sponsorship manager of Goa-based El Shaddai, which works with neglected street children, orphans and those from poor or broken families, has agreed that they will take in Raja Thanee Prasad if he can make it to India.

"We will accept the child, but if it is possible we would need some legal documents to be arranged," El Shaddai sponsorship manager Sheryl Fernandez said. "We would like to take the child because we want to help him."

Abdul Razzaq [Images], an Indian friend of Raja's father, is taking care of him in Manama, but does not have the means to look after him properly.

The Migrant Workers Protection Society has been providing financial support to the boy and trying to reunite him with his father.

Raja's father, a laundry worker who had lived in Bahrain for 16 years, comes from Hardoi in Uttar Pradesh. It was earlier understood that he was planning to return to Bahrain to claim Raja, after being sent home by his sponsor, but he has not done so, the report said.