Watch video: Punjab woman recounts horrible torture in Saudi Arabia
After a video gone viral of a Punjabi woman pleading to AAP MP Bhagwant Mann to rescue her from Dawadmi town of Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh had surfaced, the same woman had shared the details of her horrific torture in Dawadmi.
Finally, with the help of Ministry of External Affairs, the woman, Reena, was rescued. She revealed that she had planned to go to Malaysia to work to meet the expense of her husband’s treatment. Instead, she was sent to Riyadh by her agent and was promised 1012 Dhirams.
Her case hit headlines after she managed to make a video of herself and pleaded to AAP MP Bhagwant Mann to rescue her. He had rescued another Punjab woman stuck in a similar situation.
Pleading, she said in the video, “Please help me, help me, I have been stuck here for a year. I am being tortured on a daily basis. You have helped others out of here, you could take me out of here too, I am also like your daughter, please help me, I am trapped here. I did not know that I’d be treated in such a way. They do not give me food for days at a time. If you do not get me out of here then I will die here; they will kill me. I have children too.”
Revealing the torture and the trauma she faced during her stay, she said, “They beat me daily. I am kept locked inside the room. I live in the Dawadmi city of Saudi Arabia. I am very badly trapped, Bhagwant Maan Sahab, help me out, get me out of here somehow. I am very poor, I have come here to work. I want to return to my children. My mother has to be operated upon. She is very sick. Help me please, I do not want to stay here. Take me out of here and I being beaten up. These are very dirty people. I request to my brothers and sisters in India to never come to Saudi Arabia.”
Her video soon went viral, bringing the attention of MEA. Soon, immigration officers reached Sheikh’s house and rescued Reena. She was beaten often and went days without food. She revealed that when she demanded to return to India, the Shiekh demanded Rs 2.5 lakhs to let her go.
Once, she even managed to go to the police but the police dropped her to the Shiekh;s house again.
Her case is one of several cases in which Indians face abuse by their employers abroad. Its time India has a policy in place for such cases.