Punjab NRI Affairs Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal on Friday sought the intervention of the Union government to bring back Punjabi women stranded in Muscat, the capital of Oman.
In a letter to Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Dhaliwal requested the former to take up the matter on humanitarian grounds with the concerned embassies to ensure the safety of these women and necessary steps to bring them back to India.
“I would like to draw your kind attention to the video that had gone viral and the news in some newspapers about the Punjabi women stranded in Muscat. Most of them went there in search of employment through an agent from Hyderabad as written in the newspaper,” the minister wrote.
He also sought necessary measures by the external affairs ministry to stop such practices by unscrupulous agents so that innocent women may not be duped.
A video of over 35 Punjabi women pleading with the Indian authorities to rescue them from illegal confinement in Oman had recently gone viral on social media. Reports said some of them were made to enter Oman from the UAE-Oman border through Al Ain with the help of touts on either side of the border. Since their visas were time-bound, they overstayed and could not travel back to Punjab till their overstay penalties were paid to Oman courts or their employment bonds released by their sponsors upon payment.