CHANDIGARH: Sukhwant Kaur from Ajitani village near Nurmahal in Punjab who was sold in Saudi Arabia and forced to work as a slave, returned to India after five-months on Wednesday after Minister of External Affairs (MEA), Sushma Swaraj intervened.
Kaur (55) arrived at Shri Guru Ramdas Jee International Airport in Amritsar, and thanked the Centre for helping to bring her back, and advised people not to send women abroad for work. “A travel agent sold me to the Saudis as I had gone on a three-month visa, and was forced to work like a slave at a local’s house there.”
Her family members along with senior BJP leaders Manoranjan Kalia and Anil Joshi, and former village sarpanch Jagdish Singh along with local activists received her at the airport.
Former local bodies minister Anil Joshi said, “The Union government made it possible to reunite her with her family. Sushma Swaraj did her best to get her back and even arranged her tickets from Mumbai to Amritsar.”
Sukhwant Kaur had left for Saudi Arabia on a three-month tourist visa in January 2017, and on May 7 called her husband, Kulwant Singh, back in the village saying she wanted to return home but said her passport was with the travel agent who was untraceable. She also told Singh that she was sold to a local by the travel agent and forced to work as a slave in his house, and was treated badly and tortured.
On Tuesday, the former sarpanch of Ajtani village; Jagdish Singh, got a call from the MEA that Kaur was arriving on Wednesday on a flight from Saudi Arabia to Mumbai and then from there to Amritsar as the ministry had arranged for her travel.
Kaur’s eldest daughter, Ranjeet Kaur, had been running from pillar to post to get her mother back. “We had lost all hope of seeing her again. I could not meet my mother before she left for Saudi Arabia, but finally she is back after this ordeal,” said Ranjeet.
Kulwant Singh said “She had gone for three months. Initially, for the first two months everything was fine and normal. But after that we learnt that the travel agent had sold her to a local there and she was working as a slave. That person was demanding money for her release.”