Bengaluru, 20 Feb

A 30-year-old woman from Tumakuru, who was subjected to harassment by her employer in Saudi Arabia for over a month, returned home on Sunday, thanks to a social welfare worker who came to her rescue.

In a twist of fate, the woman when she was a little girl living at a Muslim orphanage in Bengaluru witnessed the luxuries Saudi had to offer in 2004. She along with others was invited by the late King Abdullah bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud to be a state guest for a month and to perform Hajj.

The little girl had performed Hajj and spent a month in the luxurious Metropolitan Palace Hotel, Mecca, thanks to the benevolence of the King.

However, 20 years later, the woman who has four children – two boys and two girls—was forced to seek employment after her husband was diagnosed with heart ailments.

An unscrupulous agent Saleem approached her with a domestic help job offer in Abha, a city near the Red Sea, Saudi Arabia. However, upon reaching Saudi, the woman found herself in a harrowing situation. She was harassed with long hours of work, poor food, bad accommodation, and no rest, a far cry from the luxury she had seen the first time.

Speaking to Salar News, Salma S (name changed) said, "I was starry-eyed when I got the job offer as I had memories of all the luxuries in Saudi I had seen when I was a little girl. The family harassed me with long hours of work with no rest, poor food, and bad accommodation."

After facing continuous harassment, the woman fled the house and sought assistance from fellow Indians, who put her in touch with social worker Ashraf Kuttichal. Kuttichal helped the woman seek shelter and got in touch with the Indian diplomatic mission to inform them about her plight. He also purchased a ticket for her, as she could not afford it, and ensured that she boarded the flight safely.

"I am now left without a source of income and I appeal to the community and the State government to help me tide over this crisis," she said.

According to social workers and sources aware of the tourist visa scam in Saudi Arabia, a large number of women from Bengaluru and other parts of Karnataka are being duped into paying huge sums of money to go to Saudi Arabia on tourist visas and then they are left in the lurch.