Ravindranath Shanbhag, president, Human Rights Protection Foundation (HRPF), has said the Union Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj had directed officials of Indian Embassy in Riyadh through a tweet on June 23 to rescue Jacintha Mendonca, a nurse from Karkala, who has allegedly been trapped in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, for one year now.
In a press release issued here on Tuesday, Mr. Shanbhag said that in response to Ms. Swaraj’s direction, Javed Ahmed, the Indian ambassador, spoke about the efforts made on this issue. In the meantime, the HRPF contacted B.K. Shetty, a founder member of Karnataka NRI Association, and Roshan Rodrigues, its present president. Both promised to negotiate with Ms. Mendonca’s employer who was residing at Yanbu, Saudi Arabia.
No progress so far
According to her employer’s version, the agents who sent Ms. Mendonca to Saudi Arabia had taken 24,000 SAR (Saudi Arabian Riyals) from him and he would let her return if this was repaid. When HRPF informed M.C. Luther, Protector General of Emigrants, of this he ordered an enquiry. Even after two months of this order, no progress has been recorded, Mr. Shanbhag said.
Last week for the third time, the HRPF approached Ms. Swaraj on the issue. After Ms. Swaraj’s directive, both the governments of Maharashtra and Karnataka got involved in the matter. Meanwhile, an agent, Shabha Khan from Mumbai involved in this matter, was absconding, while the sub-agent James, was in police custody, Mr. Shanbhag said.
Misled by agent
After the demise of her husband last year, Ms. Mendonca, 42, was looking for a job to educate her three teenage children. James, a sub-agent from Mangaluru, told her about a job of a home nurse with a monthly salary of ₹25,000 to look after the children of an Indian living in Qatar. She took his word. James got her a passport and a visa for free. He then got her ticket and she caught a flight on June 19, 2016. But she was shocked when she landed in the airport at Saudi Arabia instead of Qatar, which she learnt from the car driver sent to pick her up to take her to Yanbu. She was not even informed of the name of her employer.
After being taken to her employer, she learnt that she had to take care of his 10 children and was required to work for over 16 hours a day in a bungalow. As a result, her health deteriorated and her pleas of inability to complete the work fell on deaf ears.
She urged her employer to send her to India, but to no avail. She then managed to contact her family members in December, 2016, and explained her plight to them, the release said.
