Telangana: Poor women tricked into slavery in Gulf

Agents take money from employers promising cheap labour.

Hyderabad

: When his wife called him from Saudi Arabia three days after landing there and started crying, Ali bin Yusuf Barkath thought she must be homesick.

The 40-year-old Parveen, who went to work as a maid in a Saudi national’s house, told Yusuf “It’s terrible. I cannot stay here anymore.”

After eight days when Yusuf talked to her, things were worse. “She told me that she was made to work from morning to midnight. They did not give her food on some days. She could not speak properly fearing her employer would snatch her phone,” said Yusuf, an autorickshaw driver.

The next conversation with Parveen shocked Yusuf. He became convinced that she was being pushed into bonded labour.

“When she protested, her employer told her that he bought her paying money to the visa agent. He told her that she cannot leave for two years as per the deal with the agent,” said Yusuf.

Mother of a teenaged girl, Parveen flew to Saudi on a maid’s visa on November 29 after a local agent, Mohd Anwar, made her believe the job was easy.

He said that there were only two adults and two kids at the home and that she would be paid 1,000 Riyal (Rs 17,794) per month. “But there were seven people in the house. She can sleep only just six hours,” said Yusuf.

Like Parveen, there are four other Hyderabadi women, who are stuck in Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar. The agents and their Gulf counterparts take money from Gulf employers for recruiting cheap labour.

Since procedures through embassies take a long time the cops are hunting down local agents and pressing them to get the victims freed. In Parveen’s case, the agent, Mohd. Anwar has already promised to bring her back to Hyderabad in a few days, police said.

A Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) official said that if the women can contact the Indian embassy, efforts will be made to rescue them. "Their relatives from Hyderabad must contact MEA with the victims’ visa details,” said the official over the phone.

However, the spokesperson said that many people go to Gulf through illegal channels without registering at the embassy. "Many people go there with the help of Illegal agents who do not register details with Indian embassy. When the embassy does not have details it becomes difficult to rescue the workers," said the official.

"The external affairs minister has urged people to take the services of only registered agents to go abroad," he added.