Hyderabadi woman stranded in Dubai finally returns home

Helping these women return home is turning out to be a tough task for Indian officials due to the stringent visa rules of the host country.

Riyadh: Several Indian women, who were promised jobs and sent to Saudi Arabia from neighbouring Gulf countries, are landing in trouble after realising that they were sent by agents using fraudulent means. Helping these women return home is turning out to be a tough task for Indian officials due to the stringent visa rules of the host country.

The experience of a Hyderabadi widow, who was cheated by a local agent, exemplifies the pain and trauma such women go through to return home. She finally returned home after herculean efforts by Indian diplomats over nearly nine months to cancel her visa and repatriate her back home.

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Sakina Fatima (33) of Yakutpura in Hyderabad, came to Dubai in February 2022 to work as a domestic help. However, she was not paid and when she insisted on returning home, she was told she would be sent back to Hyderabad. However, instead of Hyderabad, she was sent in May 2022 to a small town in Saudi Arabia that borders Kuwait, again to work as a domestic help.

There too, she had to face hostile working conditions and mistreatment. Her plea to visit her ailing mother too went in vain. Subsequently, her mother died on November 11 last year.

Fatima then sought help from the Indian Embassy in Riyadh through her family to return home. Hafar Al Batin, where Fatima was working, was 500 km away from the capital Riyadh. It was not easy for her to reach Riyadh and no one could transport her to Riyadh due to local rules. The Indian Embassy rescued her from there and provided shelter in Riyadh in November 2022.

Since then, Embassy officials have been working to repatriate her back home and finally they succeeded in doing so recently. Indian woman volunteer Manju Manikuttan also volunteered in the repatriation efforts.