Malayali Lady duped by Travel Agent Rescued

Dubious recruiting agents in Kerala are cheating innocent girls

K.M.Meena, Indian Ambassador, Muscat (left), M.M.Hassan, NRK Minister

The Overseas Malayali Welfare Minister M.M.Hassan, who is sitting in the state capital and talking too much about the NRK Welfare should open his eyes and see who is recruiting innocent girls. A travel agent in Vallikkadavu, --not far away from the Minister's office -- has done this heinous crime against Indian womanhood.

Special Report: KM Correspondent, Kochi

Kochi : One more Malayali women from Central Kerala who was taken to the Gulf by a Malayali travel agent to work as a housemaid has been rescued due to the timely intervention of the Indian Ambassador in Muscat .K.M.Meena and other embassy officials following a red alert send by her relatives from Kerala. The girl was rescued from the clutches of a group of criminals one month after she was send to the Gulf.

After talking to his wife over telephone and reading her first letter, the Malayali husband realized that something was wrong. Without knowing anything about the Gulf and helpless to rescue his wife from the Arab sponsor who was allegedly harassing her, he approached the Indian Embassy, Muscat with an appeal to the Ambassador to repatriate the women, who had been stranded in for several weeks. 'My wife was recruited by M/s Ashraf Haji, Al-Medina Travels, Vallakkadavu, Thiruvananthapuram for a job. She was offered a house-maid visa ...on a salary of Rs.7500/- and she left in the second week of December 2001,' he said in a complaint.

'Subsequently I have come to know from her telephone conversations and letters that she now finds it extremely difficult to sustain herself for several reasons. She went to the Gulf under circumstances of great financial difficulties and the present situation only adds to our agony,' he said in his complaint. 'In her last telephone conversation with me , she pleaded to do something to get her out of the present situation. Hence I request Your Excellency to intervene in this problem and do whatever is possible to send her back,' the complaint said.

It is learned that a Malayali Embassy Official, Mr.Raheem, who handles such cases called up the local agent, one Mr.Mohanan Pillai and the local sponsor, who pretended ignorance about any problems facing the Malayali maid. However, the embassy official went all the way to Shinas, near the UAE boarder and spoke to the lady, who was afraid of speaking in front of her 'Bosses.' Since she was subjected to physical abuse and was not given proper food for disobeying, she was really scared. They also threatened to fabricate some theft charges against her -- a common threat used against disobedient girls. However, she was bold enough to tell the Embassy official that she wanted to go back to her husband as early as possible, and that the job offered was "not suitable for her."

Even though the agent were reluctant to send the lady back before making up for the huge amount of money claimed to have been paid to the Malayali agent, he could not fulfill his wish due to the strong stand taken by the Indian Embassy. The local agent was told to pay for her return air ticket and the lady was repatriated to India in the third week of January 2002. The Malayali lady said he had a miraculous escape from the culprits. However, she had to give a written statement that there is no complaint against the agent or the Arab sponsor who tried to molest her.

It is learned that at least one housemaid harassment case reaches the Embassy almost every day and many of them are related to sexual crimes committed by the agent or the local sponsor. In the year 2001, more than 120 Indian housemaids approached the Indian Embassy in Muscat alone with complaints of sexual offences and more than fifty of them were repatriated. There are several cases of suicide cases by Indian housemaids in the Gulf.

After the last incident involving a Malayali girl from Kochi, who was rescued in a similar manner, the housemaid racket shifted their operation to Madras, Bombay and other places. Since the case was widely reported in the Malaya lam media, the Kerala based recruiting agents who operate from the state capital started sending Malayali women from Chennai and Bombay airports. After sometimes, they resumed sending girls to the Gulf directly from Kerala airports. It was hardly one month after he assumed charge that Meena took steps to rescue another Malayali girl from Kochi from a dubious Malayali agent in Muscat.

In the Gulf, one of the first things done by the local housemaid agents is to subject girls to forceful birth control measures. Before they join work, they are forced to take contraceptive pills. Innocent girls who are taken to the Gulf promising housemaid jobs realize the nature of job only after landing in the alien land. In many case, they are abused by the agents themselves, before sending them to the Arab sponsors. In some cases, the helpless girls accept the fait accompli and end up as a sex slave for the sponsor or in the hands of flesh traders.

It is high time that the Indian Government reviewed its policy of allowing young women to be recruited as housemaids and diverted to the growing sex racket in the Gulf. The Overseas Malayali Welfare Minister M.M.Hassan, who is sitting in the state capital and talking too much about the NRK Welfare should open his eyes and see who is reciting such innocent girls. A travel agent sitting in Vallikkadavu, --not far away from the Minister's office -- is doing this heinous crime against Indian womanhood. Is the travel agent owned by one of the political leaders in Thiruvananthapuram who shed lot of crocodiles tear about housemaid problems?

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