For many Indians, the term “Gulf nation” symbolises hope, a sign of good life and prosperity. Gulf countries attract Indians in large numbers, especially from Kerala. But sadly, the ground reality that has emerged paints a different picture altogether — with reports of workplace harassment, “horrible bosses” and difference in culture, many Indians are quitting […]
Category: India
It is estimated that over the next few years a large number of Indian labourers will head back home because of economic downturn and political upheavals in West Asian countries. Rehabilitating them will be a big challenge for the Central and State governments. The end is nowhere in sight to the fighting in Yemen, one […]
Suffering beatings, burns and abuse for over a year, a domestic maid escapes from her Kuwaiti employers and finally comes home “I was beaten up daily for silly reasons. I was locked up in a store-room and they used to inflict burns on my body whenever they were angry. They provided only a little food […]
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is home to around 2.8 million Indian nationals, of which 60-70 per cent are blue-collar workers. The UAE has the second largest community of Indians, after Saudi Arabia. But the exact number of Indian blue-collar workers there is not available as the UAE authorities do not share such data with […]
Migrant workers have been stuck in the Gulf country for over 18 months, without food, water or adequate shelter “For the last 18 months, Embassy officials and ministers are coming and going. We hear the same words. We will be rescued soon, help is on the way, no need to worry… But now we are […]
Manjusha OM, an Indian domestic worker from Kerala, returned home empty-handed from Saudi Arabia, with a shattered mind and bruises on her body, after working like a slave for eight months. She was beaten up by her Arab employer for ‘disobedience’ during her 20-hour-long duty and had to eat from garbage bins to keep herself […]
In the Churu city of Rajasthan, India, a family of 10 is desperately worried. Six years ago, Yousuf Ali*, the third of eight siblings, took a loan to leave for Riyadh to work as part of Empower Contracting, a subsidiary of the construction business Saudi Binladen Group. The dream to support his family did not […]
Rajayah Yenkampally, a 43-year-old native of the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, is on a train home from Mumbai. “I Landed at Mumbai airport from Kuwait today (Saturday). Still it hurts. I have 22 stitches in my head.” Yenkampally, who migrated to Kuwait in 2016 on a domestic worker visa, was forced to work […]
Manjusha Om, a 38-year-old divorcee from Kerala and mother of two girl children aged 14 and 8, emigrated to Saudi Arabia to earn little extra money last March. But last week, she returned to Palode, a small village in the foothills of the Western Ghat mountain ranges in Thiruvananthapuram, empty handed with scars of physical […]
The effects of the Saudi Arabia-led blockade of Qatar, which has been in place for over 100 days, are beginning to show. Prices of commodities such as rice and vegetables have been rising bit by bit, travel out of and into Qatar is getting more expensive, and jobs are vanishing. Everyone feels the pinch, but […]