Hyderabad: “One should never trust agents who promise you jobs with attractive salaries in the Gulf. Nobody else should suffer like me. My life should be a lesson to all the women who want to go and work in Gulf with no guarantee of their return.” said 30-year-old Shabana Begum, who was trafficked to Saudi Arabia to work as a domestic help, but was harassed by her kafil and his family.
She reached home on Saturday. After learning of her plight, a co-worker informed migrant rights activists in Telangana, who pursued her case with the Indian Embassy and helped in her repatriation with family.
Telangana Gulf Workers’ Association President Nangi Devender Reddy said many women were being trafficked to the Gulf but due to lack of monitoring from government agencies, they were trapped in the houses of kafils.
Ms Shabana Begum, a school dropout, is the third daughter of Mr Sher Khan, a mulla at a mosque in Sanatnagar. After her elder sisters got married, Shabana was helping her father in maintaining the house. An agent, Mohammed Shafi from Kalapathar, who came to know of the family situation, lured her with the offer of a well paid job in Saudi Arabia.
“My father tried to dissuade me from going to Gulf saying that it is not safe, but I did not listen to him. Not only me but I also put all my family in sorrow. Only after going there I understood the horrific situation women have to go through in the homes of kafil” she said, after reaching home on Saturday.
Unable to bear the pressure, she wanted to return home but the kafil allegedly confined her in a room and tortured her.
