Pics: Umesh Marpalli
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (HB)

Udupi, Apr 5: Jacintha might be among those several women who have been promised jobs in the Gulf by agents and then cheated. Quite a few job agents have sprouted in the city and are playing with people’s lives.

Jacintha (42), from Karkala was looking for a job for survival. Having lost her husband due to tuberculosis last year, she wanted a job to earn and educate her three children. An agent from Mangaluru, identified as James, informed her about a job of housemaid in Qatar. She was promised a salary of Rs 25,000 per month too. The agent procured her passport and visa, and handed them over to her.

Jacintha went to Delhi via Mumbai, from where she flew to the Gulf on June 19, 2016. To her shock, she landed in Saudi Arabia instead of Qatar. She is yet to return, and her children here are worried for her health and safety.

(Faces blurred on request)

Her elder daughter, Venita, a graduate, says, "My mother is under threat and is also being consistently tortured by her employer. She is suffering from tuberculosis and fever. I feel, she is not getting proper food. I could understand her dilemma in her voice. She might have become weak without treatment for her illness."

Jacintha's son Welroy who is pursuing BCom at Shirva College says, "The employer is sending Rs 17,000 every month and that is the only source of income for our livelihood. We hope that her employer will not trouble her and send her back to India soon.

The youngest daughter of Jacintha, Velita has completed her PUC.

Addressing a press meet, Ravindranath Shanbagh, president of Human Rights Protection Foundation (HRPF) said, "Jacintha is trapped from the last 10 months in the small town of known of Yanbu in Saudi Arabia. The Human Right Protection Foundation literally has tried hard to know the whereabouts of the lady for many months. A letter had been sent to Sushma Swaraj, minister for external affairs and Arathi Krishnamurthy. Now, Protector General of Emigrants M C Luther and Consul General of Jeddah are in constant touch with her employer (Abdullah Almutairi).

"A complaint has been lodged with the deputy police commissioner at the commissioner's office in Mangaluru. James was arrested, but the police could not retrive any information from him.

"At the end of January this year, HRPF contacted NRI Forum in Bengaluru and through them the Indian Embassy in Riyadh once again. This time, they could get the details of the Saudi employer, his address, among other details. When contacted, he asserted that he had obtained her services for working for two years in his bungalow for which he had already paid Saudi SAR 24,000 equivalent to Rs 5 lac to an Indian agent named Shabha Khan. She could be sent back only if the amount was refunded to him, the employer told us. It is not known who has pocketed this huge sum paid by the Saudi employer, whether Khan or James, but Jacintha has to suffer in the melee. At this stage, even the NRI Forum in Bengaluru expressed their helplessness in the matter.

"It is alleged that while Jacintha traveled with a few other people, her employer took her thumb impressions on documents after she was in an unconscious state after being hit on head.

"In 2006-07, a recruiting agency and monitory committee was set up, but is not working now. There is no particular recruiting agency in Mangaluru, Udupi and Calicut, and unfortunately most of the job aspirants are moving to Saudi Arabia. External affairs canceled the license of Trio Tracks Travels Consultants from Delhi for being involved in sending Jacintha to Saudi Arabia," he said.

"Jacintha’s life is in danger. The department concerned has to bring her back within a week. Her health might be deteriorating. Moreover, TB is a communicable disease. According to Jacintha, her employer has three wives and ten children. In their big bungalow, she was required to work for over 16 hours a day," he added.

"More than 10 agents are functioning without license (registration). According to Emigration Act 1983, every recruiting agency should be registered. According to Section 10 of the Act, law breakers should be prosecuted and Section 24 says, they should be sent to jail. But the police are backing out from arresting James by giving excuses," Shanbhag said.