The Madras High Court division bench today ordered a notice to the Home Secretary and the Foreign Secretary on a habeas corpus petition by a woman to produce her son who was reportedly being forced to work as a bonded labourer for 18 to 20 hours a day in Saudi Arabia.
Petitioner Gorima submitted a travel agency operator had assured her 25-year-old son Kareem that he would get him a supervisor's job at Najran in Saudi Arabia. Believing him and the two managers of the company, he paid them Rs 1.30 lakh after pledging jewellery and borrowing money and went there on June 30, 2014.
However on arrival in Saudi Arabia, he called her and told her that the five persons responsible for sending him to that country had cheated him.
They had actually 'sold' him to one Salai Abunesar of Saudi Arabia. They had taken his passport and other travel documents and asked him to work in a horse and camel stable for 18-20 hours a day. He was forced to work even if sick and not given any medical treatment. Her son and some other persons were detained in dark rooms surrounded by a high compound wall, Gorima submitted.
The petitioner said though she urged the manager and the owner to bring her son back, they did not give proper answer and verbally abused her. They did not even inform her where he was working in Saudi Arabia. She was threatened that she would not see her son if she repeatedly came to the agency.
The woman said she had filed a police complaint and sent representations to the Home secretary, the Foreign Secretary, the Tiruchirapalli District Collector and the Commissioner of Police. But there was no response and her son's whereabouts in Saudi Arabia was not known since June 30 2014, she said.
Hence she prayed that the court intervene and direct the respondents to produce Kareem in person and set him free.
