NEW DELHI: An Indian woman who was stranded in Qatar after being lured by a recruitment agent on the pretext of a job has been rescued and is back in India, thanks to the prompt help from Qatari authorities.
Syeda Mariyum, who worked as a nurse in a hospital in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, fell victim to the scam of a visa agent in India, according to Indian news agency Asian News International (ANI).
She was offered the job of a nurse for a salary of Rs40,000 a month by an agent named Fatima. Hard up for money, she accepted the job offer and left for Qatar on April 11. “After landing there, I was picked up by another agent whose name is also Fatima and she kept me in an office which belongs to another agent, whose name is Gopal,” she told ANI.
Recalling her ordeal, Syeda said that despite being offered the job of a nurse, she was sent to a local resident to work as a housemaid. Upon refusing to work as a maid, Syeda said her employer took her to the Indian Embassy in Qatar.
Syeda informed her mother Tabassum Begum about her plight. “My mother complained to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj through a letter to which the Indian Embassy responded and immediately asked my agent to send me back to India as soon as possible,” she says.
The ‘agent’ in Qatar, who was already involved in three other cases, was arrested by the local authorities, the report says.
According to Syeda, Fatima tortured her, saying she should stay in Qatar for five years or else her family should pay Rs.200,000 for sending her back to India.
The government of Qatar recently opened seven visa centres in India as part of its Qatar Visa Centres (QVCs) project. The opening of the centres has been hailed as a major step in simplifying and streamlining visa procedures for job seekers in Qatar. Violations of laws are dealt with strictly and promptly.
Interestingly, one of the visa centres is in Hyderabad, the city from where Syeda hails. The other visa centres are in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Lucknow, Chennai, and Kochi.
The government of Qatar takes quick action against any malpractice in the labour or visa sectors and has a zero-tolerance policy in this regard. As a host of the 2022 World Cup, the labour reforms of the government have won appreciation from the FIFA.
However, unscrupulous visa agents are on the prowl looking for unsuspecting job-seekers.