The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Madurai News : Youth cheated in Saudi Arabia, wants to return home

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 15, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Madurai

Youth cheated in Saudi Arabia, wants to return home

By S. Vijay Kumar

S. Abuthaker.

MADURAI, SEPT. 14. Even before he could earn his first month's salary in Saudi Arabia, S. Abuthaker of Madurai is desperate to return home. Though he was promised a truck driver's job with a decent salary, the 25-year-old youth was allegedly harassed, beaten up and made to starve when he refused to work as a load man.

Like any other unemployed youth, he wanted a foreign job and quick money, Mr. Abuthaker paid Rs. 85,000 to an agent in Tiruchi to get employed in a private concern as a truck driver. Even as the employment order and visa papers mentioned that he would be a driver, the reality was different.

Within a week of his landing in Al Houfuf, Mr. Abuthaker sent an SOS home, stating that he was forced to load huge cylinders in several trucks continuously and roughed up whenever he refused to work or took breaks. During the 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. shift, he was provided with some stale food and black tea.

While the lower middle class family comprising his aged father, brother and five sisters here was hoping that their sufferings would end soon, with Mr. Abuthaker taking up a job abroad, the costly venture had boomeranged. ``We borrowed money on high rates of interest to pay for the agent and flight charges. He is already suffering from an acute back-pain, owing to disc prolapse, and doctors warned him against hard work,'' says his elder brother, S. Dhadha Basha, who works as a commercial clerk in Southern Railway's Madurai Division.

The family members of Mr. Abuthaker want him back immediately, since they fear for his safety. ``He called last night and said the supervisor bashed him up, causing a head injury, for not completing the assigned work in time. Notwithstanding the back pain, his employers are extracting heavy work that may aggravate his health condition,'' Mr. Basha says.

When the matter was brought to the notice of the Madurai MP, P. Mohan, he sent a fax message to the Minister of External Affairs, Natwar Singh, urging him to take up the issue with the Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia and arrange for his immediate release from the clutches of his employer.

The family members have sent a telegram to the Indian Embassy officials in Saudi Arabia, seeking their intervention in rescuing Mr. Abuthaker. They have also offered to meet the flight expenses.

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