Punjab NRI Affairs Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal on Friday (May 12) wrote to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, requesting his intervention in rescuing women from the state who were reportedly stranded in Muscat, Oman's capital. Dhaliwal asked him to raise the issue with the relevant embassies on humanitarian grounds in order to ensure the women's safety and return to India.
According to the Punjab government statement: "I would like to draw your kind attention about the video that had gone viral and the news in some newspapers about Punjabi women stranded in Muscat. Most of them went there in search of employment through an agent from Hyderabad as written in the newspaper," Dhaliwal said in the letter.
He also stated that the External Affairs Ministry may take appropriate action against unscrupulous agents so that innocent women are not duped.
A video of over 36 Punjabi women pleading with Indian authorities to rescue them from illegal confinement in Oman went viral on social media earlier this month.
The young women were seen in the video saying that they were imprisoned for two to three months in an unknown location in Muscat and forced to work as slaves. "We have asked the authorities here (in Muscat), the Punjab government, including Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, to assist in our rescue and return, but no one is listening. We're in big trouble here," all the women in the video said at the same time.
Following this, Rajya Sabha MP Vikramjit Singh Sahney coordinated with the Indian Embassy in Muscat and learned that they were brought to Oman under the guise of seeking employment.
Some of them were forced to enter Oman from the UAE-Oman border via Al Ain with the assistance of touts on both sides of the border. They overstayed because their visas were time-limited and were unable to return to Punjab until their overstay penalties were paid to Oman courts or their employment bonds were released by their sponsors upon payment.
36 women were stranded in the country, including those from Amritsar, Ludhiana, Ferozepur, Jalandhar, Moga, Mohali, and Chandigarh.