We the NRIs
We the NRIs
A recently arrived Indian shared his suffering. He left his well paying job in Mumbai, India and joined a company in Saudi Arabia spending hefty sum on visa processing and consultancy charges. Now his Saudi employer had reduced his salary to half of that promised. He had no idea how he could go back and join his previous job in Mumbai. I suggested him to approach Indian embassy attaché in Dammam.
One day a friend of mine called from Dubai and asked to help a victim under similar situation. I call these people victim of abject poverty, greed, and of course exploitative, merciless Saudi employers. I travelled a long way to reach the hapless boy of under 20. He had been employed by a company in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia as a crane operator. On arrival he was asked to do manual lifting of heavy items which he never did earlier. He refused to do so. His employer beat him up and sent him to Mazra'a. Mazra'a is date farm generally located outside cities. He was asked to look after cattle. It was a blow on ego of an educated person from Aligarh Muslim University. He had done his Higher Secondary from AMU with Mathematics. He could be an Engineer but was unfortunate and succumbed to family responsibilities. Somehow he escaped from mazra'a and had been living with his brother for several days. It is illegal for an employee in Saudi Arabia to keep someone in company’s accommodation. Elder brother might lose job if his company would come to know. We approached Indian embassy attaché in Dammam. The officials were quite responsive. They sympathized with the victim and consoled him and assured that his problem would be solved and asked us to contact Indian Embassy in Riyadh. Officials in Riyadh showed callous behavior and suggested to compromise with the employer.
At Riyadh Airport I met a group of workers stranded for three days waiting for company representative to come and take them to company which hired them.
My friend lived hiding for months and could not join his father's funeral because his passport was lost by his kafeel (sponsor) and his iqama got expired.
During a journey back to Dammam from Riyadh I stopped at a restaurant for a cup of tea. A group of workers entered the restaurant. On asking by waiter they informed, they were being transferred from Riyadh to Dammam and were not served food at the time of leaving camp. It was midnight and they all were hungry.Moreover, they had no money as they arrived only few days ago. The restaurant owner was a kind person who ordered his men to serve all workers free food.
There are hundreds of such stories happening with Indians and other expatriates which is heart rending but who is to be blamed. Kingdom has been infamous on human rights record. Is government of India not responsible for dignified living, safety and security of its own people abroad? Or only hard earned foreign exchange by these people is dear to government?
This kind of treatment is not meted out to manual workers only. On arrival at Riyadh Airport from India, I experienced how officials at airport keep people standing in queue for hours. The person sitting at counter was more interested in fun, cracking jokes with friends or simply talking on mobiles. He was least bothered about the person standing in line waiting for his clearance impatiently. It was a blatant discrimination when they asked us to clear the queue and form a new one when a flight from Europe arrived.
I have my personal experience of partiality in driving training school in Al-Khobar Saudi Arabia. I observed discriminatory practices as they would call Akhwanul Arab (Brothers from Arab world) first for training and people from other nationality later on.
Almost all companies practice discrimination in accommodation, transportation and even in provision of office space and other facilities on the basis of nationality of employees.
We chose to leave our own country and leave the entire family behind;
To enjoy comfortable, highly paid job instead of hardworking and meager salaried in India
To avail well furnished housing and spanking new car instead of small house, overcrowded places and travelling in public transport
To fill bank account with easily earned money, this would be otherwise a dream
To buy properties at different location in India whereas constructing a house even in village would be like day dreaming
To pay hefty sum of money as admission fee for kids’ higher education under NRI quota
Many of us fly across Arabian Sea simply to do anything after trying very hard to get a job in homeland
Some of us see mirage and greener pasture on the other side of the fence which is desert actually
In fact, it is a tradeoff under compulsion between self-respect and highly paid but humiliating comfortable life.
Imteyaz
Dhahran,
Saudi Arabia
A recently arrived Indian shared his suffering. He left his well paying job in Mumbai, India and joined a company in Saudi Arabia spending hefty sum on visa processing and consultancy charges. Now his Saudi employer had reduced his salary to half of that promised. He had no idea how he could go back and join his previous job in Mumbai. I suggested him to approach Indian embassy attaché in Dammam.
One day a friend of mine called from Dubai and asked to help a victim under similar situation. I call these people victim of abject poverty, greed, and of course exploitative, merciless Saudi employers. I travelled a long way to reach the hapless boy of under 20. He had been employed by a company in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia as a crane operator. On arrival he was asked to do manual lifting of heavy items which he never did earlier. He refused to do so. His employer beat him up and sent him to Mazra'a. Mazra'a is date farm generally located outside cities. He was asked to look after cattle. It was a blow on ego of an educated person from Aligarh Muslim University. He had done his Higher Secondary from AMU with Mathematics. He could be an Engineer but was unfortunate and succumbed to family responsibilities. Somehow he escaped from mazra'a and had been living with his brother for several days. It is illegal for an employee in Saudi Arabia to keep someone in company’s accommodation. Elder brother might lose job if his company would come to know. We approached Indian embassy attaché in Dammam. The officials were quite responsive. They sympathized with the victim and consoled him and assured that his problem would be solved and asked us to contact Indian Embassy in Riyadh. Officials in Riyadh showed callous behavior and suggested to compromise with the employer.
At Riyadh Airport I met a group of workers stranded for three days waiting for company representative to come and take them to company which hired them.
My friend lived hiding for months and could not join his father's funeral because his passport was lost by his kafeel (sponsor) and his iqama got expired.
During a journey back to Dammam from Riyadh I stopped at a restaurant for a cup of tea. A group of workers entered the restaurant. On asking by waiter they informed, they were being transferred from Riyadh to Dammam and were not served food at the time of leaving camp. It was midnight and they all were hungry.Moreover, they had no money as they arrived only few days ago. The restaurant owner was a kind person who ordered his men to serve all workers free food.
There are hundreds of such stories happening with Indians and other expatriates which is heart rending but who is to be blamed. Kingdom has been infamous on human rights record. Is government of India not responsible for dignified living, safety and security of its own people abroad? Or only hard earned foreign exchange by these people is dear to government?
This kind of treatment is not meted out to manual workers only. On arrival at Riyadh Airport from India, I experienced how officials at airport keep people standing in queue for hours. The person sitting at counter was more interested in fun, cracking jokes with friends or simply talking on mobiles. He was least bothered about the person standing in line waiting for his clearance impatiently. It was a blatant discrimination when they asked us to clear the queue and form a new one when a flight from Europe arrived.
I have my personal experience of partiality in driving training school in Al-Khobar Saudi Arabia. I observed discriminatory practices as they would call Akhwanul Arab (Brothers from Arab world) first for training and people from other nationality later on.
Almost all companies practice discrimination in accommodation, transportation and even in provision of office space and other facilities on the basis of nationality of employees.
We chose to leave our own country and leave the entire family behind;
To enjoy comfortable, highly paid job instead of hardworking and meager salaried in India
To avail well furnished housing and spanking new car instead of small house, overcrowded places and travelling in public transport
To fill bank account with easily earned money, this would be otherwise a dream
To buy properties at different location in India whereas constructing a house even in village would be like day dreaming
To pay hefty sum of money as admission fee for kids’ higher education under NRI quota
Many of us fly across Arabian Sea simply to do anything after trying very hard to get a job in homeland
Some of us see mirage and greener pasture on the other side of the fence which is desert actually
In fact, it is a tradeoff under compulsion between self-respect and highly paid but humiliating comfortable life.
Imteyaz
Dhahran,
Saudi Arabia
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