SAUDI ARABIA

Couple ends up in a quandary after breach of work contract

House workers flee employer alleging harassment

April 07, 2018

Irfan Mohammed



Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH — An Indian couple who came to the Kingdom to work as domestic helpers got stranded in the country after they fled their employer breaching their employment contract.

However, after months in a legal quandary, the woman returned home on Friday but her husband is still waiting to be sent back.

Mohammed Hameed, 38, and his wife Razia from Rajamundry in Andhra Pradesh arrived in the Eastern Province in July 2017 to work as a private driver and maid respectively.

The couple worked in a household for about two months and then they alleged that they faced harassment from the employer. They said they were not allowed to meet each other despite living in same house.

The couple eventually requested to be repatriated home, which the employer declined. She insisted that they must adhere to their employment agreement of two years because she had spent a considerable amount of money for their recruitment.

However, the couple said they had paid about SR14,500 after borrowing from friends and relatives to the agent who had recruited them back in India to facilitate their repatriation.

Finally unable to bear the harassment by the employer any longer, the couple said, they decided to escape from the household where they worked and reached Riyadh seeking assistance from the Indian Embassy.

After three months of stay in Riyadh, the couple were informed that a criminal case was filed against Razia allegedly for stealing gold jewelry from her employer's house and subsequently a travel ban was imposed on her.

The woman was then moved to a prison in Damamm to complete her sentence. She was later shifted to deportation center where she spent over a month. She was not able to complete the deportation process as the travel ban imposed on her was not lifted, explained Manjula Manikhantam, an Indian social worker in Dammam.

With the support of the Indian Embassy, Manikhantam sought the help of Saudi Passport and police officials to get Razia's name removed from the ban list.

After intensive efforts, the authorities cleared path for Razia to return home and she finally left the Kingdom on Friday.

Indian Embassy volunteer Mirza Zaheer Baig and others provided her ticket and other expenses to reach home.

However, her husband Hameed is still stranded in the Kingdom, seeking help to return home.

In a similar case, 21-year-old Sameena Banu from Chitradurga, Karnataka in India, came to work as a housemaid, but was not paid her salary for eight months. She approached the Indian Embassy's help desk in Dammam seeking assistance to return home.

Sameena had approached the police and the passport authorities. However, sponsor has failed to show up, according to Manikhantam.

The authorities eventually blocked the employer access to all government services, which forced him to pay Sameena all her back salaries, said Manikhantam. Sameena left to India on the weekend.


April 07, 2018
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