Victim Indian, rescuer Pakistani

Borders blur during a bus ride in Oman

Representational image

Darjeeling: A Darjeeling woman was duped by her own relative but was rescued from Oman with the help of a stranger who turned out to be a Pakistani.

Sabnam (name changed) had gone to Dubai in November last year to work as a domestic help after a relative now based in Delhi made the arrangements.

"Once I reached Dubai, I was kept there for 12 days and then told that I needed to work in Oman. My passport was seized by the placement agency there. I used to be beaten by my employer. I reached out to the officials of the placement cell and they too beat me up and sent me to another employer's house," said Sabnam, in her mid-thirties.

"I could only speak a bit of Hindi and this was the main problem. I wanted to return home and I was unable to bear the torture but the placement agency in Oman told me that I had to work there for another two years. I did not have my passport too," said Sabnam, a mother of two.

"My elder sister's son had arranged for my travel to Dubai. I contacted him and narrated my ordeal but after some time, his phone was always switched off," she added.

Despite the promise of a monthly salary of Rs 25,000, Sabnam said she was given only Rs 12,500.

Two of her mobile phones were destroyed by the placement agency but finally she managed to buy another one and contact her neighbours in Darjeeling.

"The neighbour got in touch with Uden Bhutia, a social worker in Kalimpong," Sabnam said.

Bhutia then contacted Nirnay John Chhetri, the general secretary of Mankind in Action for Rural Growth (MARG), a Darjeeling-based NGO that has worked on a number of such cases in the past.