25-year-old woman from India, working as a housemaid in
Saudi Arabia, was tortured to death by her employer, the woman’s family
claims. However, the Saudi hospital where she had been treated says she
died of “natural causes.”
Asima Khatoon from Hyderabad died in Saudi Arabia
last Thursday while undergoing treatment for Tuberculosis, according to
the Ministry of External Affairs. But the family is citing torture as
the reason for her death. Calling it a case of human trafficking, the
deceased mother is demanding action againsts agents who are conning
people by promising jobs to young women and leaving them to their fate
once they get their money.
According to ANI news agency, Asima had managed to sneak a call to
her family two months before her death to blow the whistle on her ill
treatment at the hands of her employer, Abdul Rahman Ali Mohammed. They
said the young woman complained of being harassed both physically and
mentally, and begged her parents to help her get back to India as soon
as possible.
“In April, Asima called us and complained that she was tortured and
harrased by the employer’s family as result of which she fell ill and
died. They kept her locked up and opened the door in the evening,” her
mother Ghosia (pictured) told The Hindu.
The Telangana state government sent a request to the Ministry of
External Affairs asking for help in repatriating the woman, Indian media
report.
It was a call from an unknown source that informed
relatives in India she had died at the King Saud hospital for chest
diseases. Her sole phone call appears to be the only word anyone had
received from the woman since her departure for Saudi Arabia. The Indian
police said they were investigating the case. Inspector Ramesh told the
media:
“She went there for work. She worked there for four months, but
thereafter she developed some health issues. We don’t have confirmation
about the incidents. We have written a letter to the Saudi consulate by
secretariat on behalf of the state government,“
The Indian embassy sent one of its officials to the
hospital where Asima had been treated to inquire about her death.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said as cited by the
Hindu:
“He [the embassy official] was told by the mortuary
in-charge that she was admitted to the hospital on April 27 and later on
shifted to the ICU. Her death was due to natural causes and he was
informed that all the requisite documents had been handed over to the
sponsor for submission to the embassy,”
Asima’s death certificate specifies that she died due to “disseminated TB and multi-organ failure,” the spokesman said.
“Now, the government should help us in bringing back the body so that we can perform the burial here,” Ghousia sobbed.
Social activist Jameela Nishath of Shaheen Women’s
Resource and Welfare Association said that she would be staging a
demonstration near Charminar Bus stand today to highlight the ‘torture
and harrassment’ being meted out to housemaids from the city who are
working in Gulf countries.
Source: The Hindu/ RT.com
25yr old Indian woman tortured to death by Saudi employer
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