The Hindu : Tearful homecoming of Gulf expatriates

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 11, 2004

Kerala

Kerala - Kochi

Tearful homecoming of Gulf expatriates

KOCHI, JAN. 10. When the Boeing 777-300 of Emirates landed at Cochin International Airport, Nedumbassery, this morning, there were quite a few onlookers at the airport curious to see Boeing's most advanced aircraft as well as its 340-odd passengers. Their curiosity must have grown as a group of haggard-looking passengers got off the aircraft and walked towards the emigration counters.

There were a 100 of them on the flight - all of them deportees from the Gulf. They had languished in the jails of Saudi Arabia for quite some time. And most of them belonged to the northern districts of Kerala.

They had no passports with them. The Emergency Certificates issued by the Indian authorities in Saudi Arabia were the only travel documents they carried. They were hopeful that they would soon get back their passports, now detained in Saudi Arabia.

These deportees had no baggage with them, not even handbags. Some of them carried the magazines they picked from the aircraft. The Customs officials were at a loss of words. Yet, some of them were seen prodding the deportees to buy at least some toffees or chocolates for their kids from the CIAL Duty Free Shop. And some did make purchases with the little money they had.

There were none at the airport to receive them. Most of them were victims of foreign visa rackets that thrive in different parts of the State. Some of them had gone abroad on Umra visa (temporary visa for performing religious rites), giving a test of their luck.

They had not paid for their homeward journey from Saudi Arabia, for they had been caught not only jobless but penniless as well. However, they said that their stay in Saudi jail was not so harrowing, as it would be in India.

It was only two months since Abdul Nazar, hailing from Kalikavu in Malappuram, went to Saudi Arabia. He said he spent the last nine days in Sarafiya Jail, and was happy to rejoin his family without much trouble. Some of his fellow-deportees had spent over a month in jail.

Mr. Nazar said there were hundreds of Keralites in Saudi Arabia wanting to be caught during the Haj season, so that they can come home without paying the airfare. It is said that Saudi Arabian philanthropists meet the airfares of the deportees who are caught without valid documents, particularly during the Haj season.

Mr. Nazar said that the victims were those who land in Saudi Arabia on visas for mean jobs. Most of them, he said, do not realise the folly until they land there. Once they find the job tough and survival difficult, they run away from the sponsor or `kafeel', leaving the passports and other documents with him.

It is said that most of the fugitive Malayalees somehow manage to reach Jeddah, where they knowingly land in the police custody, so that the Saudi Government would arrange their homeward journey. Nearly 25 of the 100 deportees who landed here today were non-Muslims.

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