Rescued from Muscat after being duped by travel agent, Punjabi woman recounts her nightmare

Rani, who returned from Muscat recently after spending two months there, said that Punjab women who are being taken to Oman on the pretext of giving them a job (‘domestic maid’ or ‘caretaker’ work) are often left in the lurch by their agent.

Narrating her ordeal in the presence of her husband Hardeep Singh, Rani said that her real maternal aunt (‘maami’) had sent her to Muscat on March 16 this year on the pretext a false job offer.

“My aunt said that I could earn a good amount of money there (Oman) while working as a ‘caretaker’ in a hospital with a promise of a Rs 30,000 per month salary,” Rani told The Indian Express. Rani, who is uneducated, was sent there (Gulf) on a tourist visa. Her travel agent aunt charged Rs 70,000 from her and then she along with other agents in Muscat sold her for Rs 1.50 lakh to some local people there, Rani said.

“When I landed there on March 16, the agents there took my passport and phone, and I was locked up in a room. No food was given to me. When I asked the agents to send me to the hospital for the ‘promised’ caretaker job, they started forcing me to indulge in immoral activities which I resisted and refused outright. The refusal came with a price as they beat me up mercilessly,” Rani said, adding that she called her aunt and asked her why did she do this to her, to which “my aunt said that do whatever they (agents there) ask you to do”.

When asked why she went there when such negative reports are highlighted in the media and social media now and then, Rani said she was not aware of such news as she is not educated. Rani said, “The Punjab government should launch an awareness drive against such frauds in the state.

Rani said that she had gone to Muscat so as to secure the future of her five-year-old daughter. “We live in a rented house in Kapurthala. My husband is a taxi driver, and it’s hard for us to make ends meet.”

To bring her back, Rani’s husband met Seechewal on May 16 and with his efforts she returned to India within five days.

Seechewal said, “On May 16, Rani’s husband approached my team. The same day we wrote a letter to the Ministry of External Affairs seeking help from it to bring her back.” After Rani landed in India, Seechewal thanked the Ministry of External Affairs for bringing her back.

Meanwhile, Seechewal has appealed to the Centre to keep a tab on such unscrupulous travel agents and take strict action them. The Rajya Sabha member said that most of these women are made to sign an agreement for two years by the travel agents which gets in the way of their return. As these women are uneducated, it’s easy to trap them. When the condition is not fulfilled, huge sums in lakhs are demanded from their poor families to send them back to India, Seechewal added.