The Hindu : Kerala News : Large number of women trapped in Gulf countries

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 27, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Large number of women trapped in Gulf countries

By S. Anil Radhakrishnan

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, SEPT. 26. A large number of Malayali women who have been recruited illegally to Gulf countries as housemaids and forced into immoral activities are reportedly trapped in these countries with no passports or other travel documents to enable them to come back home.

Hundreds of women are trapped in the United Arab Emirates, especially in Dubai, Kuwait, Bahrain, Muscat, Oman and Qatar, airport sources told The Hindu .

Under `arrest'

As many as 20,000 housemaids have left for various Gulf countries, from Kerala, during the last three years. Many of them are virtually under "arrest" in apartments and are unable to return as the passport and travel documents are with those who recruited them.

As the Union Government, on the recommendation of the National Commission for Women, has banned the recruitment of housemaids below 30 years to Gulf countries and has made changes in the immigration rules, those being recruited as housemaids from the State and below 30 years are sent as beauticians, salesgirls or as hairdressers.

Bending rules

Some women are openly sent as housemaids by getting the required `clearance' by affixing fake emigration seal on the passport.

The third method is known as "setting" in immigration circles and among recruiting agents. Here, the personnel at the airport contact the women to be taken to the Gulf on mobile phones and on arrival at the airport ensure that the women get inside the terminal building. The fee charged for this is between Rs.15,000 and Rs.20,000 a person.

"Setting" reportedly takes place at all the airports in the State, which is confined to Chennai. While it is the Intelligence Bureau that handles emigration in Chennai, the Kerala Police are in charge of the job in all airports in the State.

The women being recruited are selected mainly from among good-looking widows and unmarried women hailing from financially and educationally backward families. Agents operate from Kozhikode, Thrissur, Malappuram, Kannur, Idukki, Ernakulam, Pathanamthitta and Thiruvananthapuram districts. These women are offered a salary of Rs.5,000 to Rs.8,000 and are assured that they will get tips in addition to the salary.

Although the agents in the Gulf countries provide money for taking passport, airfare and other expenses of these women, the sub-agents charge Rs.10,000 to Rs. 50,000 from them.

Sources said these women are put up in apartments along with those from Tamil Nadu, North India, Russia and Egypt and forced into the flesh trade run by those from North Kerala in these countries.

Silent victims

Many women who are pushed into the flesh trade do not reveal anything to their relatives taking into account the poor financial situation back home and threats from the recruiting agents and their sub-agents.

Recently, a woman hailing from Mala in Thrissur, who had been physically and mentally harassed for over three months in an apartment in Kuwait, was brought back under the initiative of Non-Resident Keralites Affairs Department (NoRKA). The woman had disclosed that over two dozen Malayali women had been trapped in Kuwait where she was put up.

Broken promise

The woman said she paid Rs.24,000 to an Angamaly-based travel agency to secure a visa of housemaid and was sent via Chennai to Kuwait on June 15. Although she was promised Rs.7,000 as salary, the employer did not give her any money as she refused to indulge in immoral activities. Her husband petitioned the Chief Minister after there were no news of her whereabouts and after recruiting agents started threatening him.

Housemaids above 30 years and who had already served three years in Gulf countries, graduates and diploma holders, who do not have any restriction to travel, are stopped and harassed by the emigration officials at the airport. They are allowed to travel once they pay a fixed amount to the officials and approach through agents, sources said. This group forms 95 per cent of housemaids proceeding to Gulf countries.

Although the Union Labour Ministry, various agencies of the Home Ministry and the local police are aware of the illegal recruitment through many women who had narrated the misery they faced in Gulf countries. Yet no steps have been taken against the erring officers who allow illegal recruitment.

NoRKA assurance

Sources said the Government and the NoRKA should intervene to save hapless women. The Secretary, NoRKA, Jiji Thomson, said the department would look into the matter if complaints in this regard are received. The NoRKA had acted on complaints it received and had taken the initiative to bring back trapped women.

The general secretary of the Recruiting Agents Association of Kerala, Victor Fernandes, said the Labour Attaches in Indian Embassies in Gulf countries should maintain a register of the women arriving for employment, especially for household chores. The Embassies should monitor them every six months to see that they are not being harassed, he added.

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