GTWCA promises help to TS youth jailed in Gulf jails

Nizamabad: It was a harrowing experience for Lambani Ravi, who went to Saudi Arabia to work there at construction sites.

The agent sent him taking lakhs of rupees without any proper work visa. After reaching there, he could not find any work. The Saudi Arabia officials put him in jail for not having a work visa.

Along with Lambani Ravi’s family, around 20 others from Kamareddy, Nizamabad, Karimnagar visited Gulf Telangana Welfare and Cultural Association (GTWCA) seeking their help to get their kin released from the jails in Saudi Arabia.

“These people are not criminals and they just wanted to earn money by working there. These people were either turned down by their employer or their work visa has expired and they do not have money to return home,” said Patkuri Basanth Reddy of GTWCA.

Some of the victims borrowed lakhs of rupees to pay the agent to go to Saudi Arabia and Gulf countries.

“He doesn’t have any money to return home and he was staying on the road, doing odd jobs to survive. We are coming from a low-income family and do not have any money to send him and bring him back,” said Ravi’s wife.

Some of these persons went there and were asked to do odd jobs which were not told by the agents. “The agents send them to work at the construction site. Instead of working at the construction site, they are sent to work in orchards to water the trees, clean the house, etc. and some of them are thrown out of the job even without giving salary. They stay there illegally without a work visa for the remaining days. Sometimes, they don’t get their passport back and one day, they are caught and sent to jail,” said P. Basanth Reddy.

He also mentioned that in jails, most of the inmates are from South Asian countries. He said that he would seek help from the Indian embassy to bring out those in prisons.