Every few days, poor families from Murshidabad, Nadia, Malda, North 24 Parganas and Howrah reach a small office at Panchanantala in Behrampore with passports, Aadhaar cards and photographs in hand. Most have lost a husband, son or brother working in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar or Kuwait. Others want to bring home relatives stranded there. They all ask for one person—Matiur Rahaman.
From the office of the Karno Subarno Welfare Society, around 220 km from Kolkata, Matiur sits before a computer, sending emails to the Prime Minister’s Office, the Union ministries of external affairs, labour, and women and child development, and Indian embassies in the Gulf countries and Malaysia. He also posts alerts on X, tagging the ministries and embassies, urging the authorities to act quickly.
Thousands of workers from rural Bengal are employed in construction companies, healthcare facilities and households in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE and Malaysia as sweepers, masons, helpers and domestic workers. Some die in accidents or from illness. Others seek help to return home after alleging abuse or harassment by employers.
The distress calls Matiur receives are rooted in a wider migration network operating across Murshidabad and neighbouring districts. More than 150 agents allegedly operate in areas such as Kandi, Lalgola and Domkal, arranging passports, visas and other paperwork for youths seeking jobs in West Asian countries.
For every case, Matiur prepares the paperwork, uploads the documents on the Centre’s MADAD portal and follows up with the ministries and Indian missions abroad. Families bring him passports, visas, Aadhaar cards and other papers. He completes the paperwork and keeps pursuing the case until there is a response.
Many workers from economically weaker families pay between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 1.5 lakh to agents for overseas jobs as sweepers, helpers and construction workers.
In Kandi subdivision alone, comprising Kandi, Bharatpur I and II, Barwan and Khargram blocks, dozens of agents reportedly operate because overseas employment remains a major aspiration among unemployed rural youths.
Sanjay Hazra came to Matiur after his son, Subho Hazra, died of a cardiac arrest in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. Subho had gone there two years ago after paying Rs 1.42 lakh to a local agent in Kandi for a sweeper’s job. With Matiur’s intervention, his body reached Khorsadanga village on July 4, where the family performed his last rites.
In another case, 25-year-old Samiul Sheikh of Gokarna in Murshidabad died in a road accident in Jeddah in January. He had paid nearly Rs 1 lakh to an agent before leaving for Saudi Arabia to work as a sweeper in a construction company. His body was brought back home in March.
On Tuesday, relatives of Rajesh Sheikh and Ramjan Sheikh of Kandi came to Matiur’s office. They alleged that both men were being tortured by the company in Dubai where they worked as sweepers. Their passports had been withheld and they were not being given food. After Matiur took up the matter with the concerned ministries and the Indian embassy, the two workers were cleared to return home.
Both workers are expected to return home this week.
According to Matiur, such cases often begin with misleading job promises. In this instance, the two youths were allegedly offered indoor cleaning jobs in hospitals, restaurants and shopping malls in Dubai by a local agent. They paid around Rs 1.05 lakh each, but later alleged that they were made to perform different work under harsh conditions.
“With sincere help of Matiur saheb, my husband Rajesh Sheikh is coming back to India. We had taken loans and paid Rs 1.05 lakh to a local agent for his job as a sweeper. But he was forced to work as a construction worker for 14 hours every day. It was unbearable and inhuman,” said Sagira Khatoon, a daily wage worker.
“I asked my husband to return home and then rushed to Matiur saheb for help. He did everything without taking a single paisa,” she said.
Matiur said he has brought back 72 bodies packed in coffins and helped around 330 migrant workers return from Middle East countries over the past four to five years.
“Sometimes, I get support from Vandana Srivastav madam, a legal expert in the Indian consulate in Geneva, when documentation becomes complicated,” he said. He said he has never taken money from any family for the work.
Matiur says the exploitation often begins even before workers leave India. He alleges that some agents arrange forged documents, including altered ages on Aadhaar cards, fake passports and medical certificates, to help migrants meet eligibility requirements for overseas employment. The minimum age for many migrant work programmes is 21, but some underage workers allegedly get documents altered to show they are eligible.
“I do this service sincerely without taking any charges from poor families. These labourers spend huge amounts to agents for minimum wages against maximum workload,” Matiur said. His work has also earned him detractors.
“Political leaders are not happy because they cannot claim credit as MLAs or MPs. Sometimes their followers call me from party offices and ask me to stop doing this work. Even the administration verbally refers many cases to me. “I will continue because helping people in their worst moments gives me satisfaction,” he said with determination in his eyes.
It’s worth noting that he also continues to receive queries from various Indian missions abroad seeking the verification of suspicious recruitment documents and details of overseas sponsors and recruiting agencies.