‘Every day felt like my last’: promised a ‘tailoring job’, Moga woman recalls days of torture, confinement on return from Iraq

Determined to speak out, she said that around 20 to 25 girls are still stuck in Iraq, trapped in circumstances similar to what she was forced to endure.

Promised freedom but faced violence, captivity
According to the survivor, the agent had assured her of weekly holidays and permission to use a mobile phone to stay in touch with her family. Instead, she was trafficked into Iraq and forced to work as a domestic servant under inhuman conditions.

She recounted that she had left India on January 8, 2024, first travelling to Dubai and then to Iraq, where her passport was confiscated. When she resisted the advances of her employer and recorded a video as proof of his misconduct, the travel agent and his wife allegedly ordered her employer to beat her up.

The violence and confinement left her deeply traumatised. “I fell into depression for nearly two months,” she said. “Every day felt like my last.”

In desperation, she reached out to Rajya Sabha MP Balbir Singh Seechewal through social media on August 10 this year. Following his intervention and coordination with the authorities, the woman managed to return home on September 28 this year.

Even after returning, the woman said, she spent weeks in shock, unable to sleep or eat properly. “Those memories will never leave me,” she said quietly.

‘A large-scale racket,’ says MP Balbir Seechewal

The woman visited Nirmal Kutia in Sultanpur Lodhi on Tuesday to thank Seechewal, whose intervention helped secure her safe return to India after months of what she said was “life in hell”.

Seechewal described her as a “symbol of courage” for speaking out about her experiences. He said her testimony has once again exposed the expanding network of illegal agents operating across Punjab’s rural belt, preying on the desperation of poor families. “This is not just the story of one girl,” he said.

The MP urged the state and Centre to take strict action against such trafficking networks that operate under the guise of overseas employment. “Every survivor we have brought back has confirmed that several others remain stranded. This is now a large-scale racket, not an isolated case,” he said.

In recent years, multiple reports have surfaced of women from Punjab and other Indian states being trafficked to Gulf countries through unauthorised agents. Many end up working in households akin to bonded labourers, facing physical abuse, non-payment of wages, and confiscation of passports.

For the young woman from Moga, survival itself was an act of defiance. “I had lost all hope of ever coming back,” she said. “If Sant Seechewal had not helped me, I would have died there.”

As she begins to rebuild her life, her story stands as both a warning and a plea — for stronger laws, vigilant enforcement, and greater awareness among families who are often drawn by the illusion of a better life abroad, said Seechewal.