Indian Woman Held Captive In Saudi Arabia Rescued

An Indian woman who was locked up in Saudi Arabia has been rescued and brought back to India. P Subbalaxmi, the 35-year-old Andhra woman, had been locked up in a room, by her chaff (sponsor) without food or water for four months in Riyadh. She managed to submit a 13-minute video on whatsapp in which she pleaded to be rescued.

"I was made to drink water from the toilet and eat whatever is pushed into it. I am being starved and I may die," she said. She managed to give the information of the illegal agents who smuggled her from Dubai to Saudi Arabia.

The Kadapa superintendent of police, PHD Ramakrishna, said that after the video, the police traced the agents who had sent her there, and told them to bring her back.

The plight of Indian workers in Saudi Arabia is sometimes unbearable. In another case of exploitation, a woman from Hyderabad, Zabeena Begum was tortured by a doctor couple who had employed her. She is stranded in the country, without money or permission to leave. When she went to the police, they sent her back to her employers.

Minister of External Affairs, Sushma Swaraj, works towards rescuing employees stuck in the country. Just this month, she helped rescue 25 Indians held captive by a company in Saudi Arabia.

Workers in Saudi Arabia are restricted by their employers who determine their visas, and permissions to leave the country. These kind of stories are brought to light every month, where Indians travel to Saudi Arabia, in the hopes of better pay, but find themselves part of a scam.

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