Simaran at Dubai Airport before her flight back to India on Sunday.
Dubai - Her plight was brought to the attention of Indian Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj on Twitter.
Published: Mon 30 Jul 2018, 7:42 PM
A 19-year-old Indian girl from the state of Punjab, was rescued by members of Dubai's Indian diplomatic mission and local associations, thanks to a series of tweets from a journalism student in the state. The tweets came to the attention of Indian Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj, who ordered the Consulate General of India (CGI) in Dubai to look into the repatriation of the girl immediately.
1998-born Simaranjeet Kaur arrived in Dubai with the hopes of pursuing a career as a nanny (child caretaker) in a household in Ajman for a salary of Dh5,000 per month. Unfortunately, as she landed, the fearful Simaran, shocked at the reality of working in Ajman, insisted that she did not want to work as a maid and asked her recruitment agent to send her back to India.
Moreover, Indian Consulate officials in Dubai have also stated Simaran's case is one of trafficking of unskilled labour from India to the UAE. Social workers in Ajman have said this has been the fastest case of repatriation that they have seen.
After much discussion and heated debates over tweets in the last three days, Simaran was finally repatriated to Amritsar on Sunday (July 29)
Series of events unfold over Twitter
Simaran is from a small village in Punjab called Pandori Gola, situated in Tarn Taran town in Punjab. The family is economically backward and depend on the income from their four children. Simaran is the oldest among the girls. "She left from Amritsar on Thursday, July 26. She landed at Dubai Airport Terminal 2 where she had to wait for several hours, given that her agent was late to pick her up," explained her mother Surinder Kaur.
"We got worried when we didn't hear from her for many hours. When she reached Ajman, she spoke to us and I felt like something was wrong. She sounded unhappy and we got worried," added Surinder. Speaking to Khaleej Times from her home in India, Surinder said, "We belong to a very poor family and have no education. We sent her to Dubai so she can get a good life," her mother added. She said, "Three other girls also went from our village, but they could return home since they have money to purchase return tickets. Simaran only had Rs3000 (Dh160) with her."
Once the mother received a distress call from her daughter, she spoke to her older son about her travel to India. Her brother alerted his friend, Monica Sharma, a journalism student. Sharma tweeted at Minister Swaraj from her handle @monicasharma27 saying, "An agent took money from her for Singapore visa and left her in Dubai. She is at Terminal 2 Dubai airport. She doesn't have a phone. Her name is Simaran. Please help". (sic)
Speaking separately to Khaleej Times, Monica said, "I was told that Simaran is being taken from house to house to see families that she can work with. In the middle, we were also told that she is going to be taken to Oman or Singapore.
Consulate takes action
After seeing her tweets, Swaraj alerted Consul General of India to Dubai Vipul over the networking app, who sprung to action almost immediately. Sumathi Vasudev, the Labour Attache at the CGI said, "Simaranjeet Kaur came to UAE on a visit visa. We received information that she was at Terminal 2 of Dubai Airport. By tracing the passenger details on Air India, we realised that she has cleared immigration." The family began to fear more as the agents mobile numbers cannot be reached.
The CGI later collected contact details of the girl's agent from the family and requested Roop Sidhu, the Secretary General of the Ajman Indian Association to look into the matter. Sidhu told Khaleej Times, "Since housemaid abandonment cases are common in Ajman, we were able to trace her through our network of other recruitment agents. We found her in a matter of hours on Saturday evening, where she was given shelter by the Association."
Roop added, "From my conversation with her, it was evident that the girl got scared, and given that she has no formal education - neither in Punjabi, English, or Hindi, she was not able to provide a written statement stating her experiences." Roop also confirmed that he has reason to believe that the agent did not treat her in any kind of abusive manner and that she lived with other housemaids in accommodations in Ajman.
Local authorities have warned Indian nationals to be careful when accepting job offers to Dubai from India.
dhanusha@khaleejtimes.com
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