She was taken to Kuwait on a visiting Visa; dumped on a street and illegally detained

Kushalnagar: Many women have escaped from the clutches of a human trafficking network in Kuwait following the intervention of some social organisations there and the authorities in India like the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

Many more such women may have been trapped in West Asian countries and giving credence to this, one more woman from Kodagu has been rescued by MEA and Kodagu District Administration. She is being brought to Karadigodu near Siddapur from Chennai International Airport after her horrendous experience on foreign soil. 

Parvathi had been to Kuwait through an agent who promised her a good job there. But she was locked up at an unknown facility and was treated in an inhuman manner. Her mother somehow reached out to the Kodagu District Administration and District Disaster Management Expert R.M. Ananya Vasudeva was assigned the responsibility of bringing her back.

 The 32-year-old woman from Karadigodu had the responsibility of fending for her two children and an aged mother. She came into contact with one Arif, who works as a travel agent in Tamil Nadu and he told Parvathi that she will be offered a home-caretaker job for a wealthy Indian family in Kuwait.

Visiting Visa

Parvathi agreed as it was an Indian family and even Arif painted a rosy picture and offered her a handsome salary. However, little did Parvathi know that she had been tricked as the agent sent her to Kuwait on a visiting Visa in October 2022.

To bypass Indian regulations, the human trafficking racketeers take women to Sharjah on a visiting visa (having a validity of six months) and later shift them to Kuwait by road. In Kuwait, they are sold to rich Arab families. The victims realise, to their horror, a few days later that they are trapped and have nowhere to go.

Parvathi was received by a Sri Lankan agent in Kuwait and was taken to the employer’s family. But Parvathi was ill-treated and the home-caretaker job turned into a nightmare and torturous. She then reached out to Arif and as Arif had already taken Rs. 3 lakh from the family, the house owner impounded her passport and claimed that the family had ‘bought’ her from Arif. He, however, asked Parvathi later to leave his house. Even the agency refused to send her back to India.

Agent washes his hands off

After Parvathi left the house, the Sri Lankan agent picked her up and dumped her in an unfamiliar area, washing his hands off. Later she was taken into custody by Kuwaiti authorities who locked her up at a facility in Tarafah ibn Al-A’bd Street.

Thankfully, she had her phone with a Wi-Fi connection with her and hence she could contact her family back home and inform them about her fate. She narrated her ordeal to her mother.

Meanwhile, Parvathi’s mother complained to Kodagu Deputy Commissioner Dr. B.C. Sathish about the illegal detention. Ananya Vasudeva took up the case and contacted the Indian High Commission and also the MEA. After some days, Parvathi was asked to come to the Indian High Commission Office in Kuwait but she was unable to do so as she was locked up.

Visa expires

To add to her ordeal, as Parvathi was sent to Kuwait on a visiting Visa, it expired. “It was a challenging task to bring her back. First, we got in touch with the Ministry handling Internal Affairs and later, MEA and Indian Embassy took up the case. We got the information through Parvathi’s mother on Dec. 17 and from then, we did not spare any efforts to rescue her,” Ananya Vasudeva told SOM.

“I was in constant touch with her from Dec. 17 through audio and video calls and was reassuring her of rescue. She was in a precarious situation and was mentally disturbed. However, we were convincing her that she will be brought home and it is just a matter of time. Finally, the office of the Indian Ambassador and the office of the MEA in Kuwait intervened with the Kuwaiti Government and her tickets were bought by the Indian Embassy and she landed in Chennai on Jan. 31. Parvathi will meet the Kodagu DC on Feb. 2,” he added.

Any decision on the action against the accused will be taken only after hearing her side of the story, Ananya Vasudeva said.