Stranded youth in Kuwait to receive passports on Jul 10

Mangaluru/Kuwait: The Indian youth who ended up stranded in Kuwait after falling prey to a job scam are expected to get back their passports on Wednesday, July 10. They will return in three batches, July 13, 15, and 17. However, there is no clarity upon the fate of the 15 persons including eight Mangalureans who are still stuck in some legal issues.

Sinc the legal issues with the company which offered employment are yet to be sorted out, Imtiaz, Azeez Abdulla, Haneef Abbu, Mohammed Irfan, Ganesh Shivaram, Abdul Azeez, Mohammed Arif Bannur and Ashfaq Amir Hussain will remain back in Kuwait.

The first batch will arrive from Kuwait on will be a team of 6 persons including 4 from Mangaluru. they will be coming on July 13 while the 15 from Andhra Pradesh will leave on July 15. On July 17, 29 from here and four from Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu will travel to Mumbai and reach their native places by train.

According to sources, apparently the company is claiming that the youth have not returned the company vehicle and other things; therefore it is refusing to return their passports. The company had said that it will hand over passports to individual workers however; the Indian embassy wants the same to be given through their office.

Meanwhile, Reshma Suvarna, who was under house arrest and later rescued, has been released and kept in the rehabilitation centre of the Indian embassy, will have to wait for at least a month to return to Kasba Bengre here. As per the Indian Embassy, she needs to wait in case the family files a missing complaint. If a complaint is filed, legal issues associated with it have to be addressed. Reshma’s passport needs to be collected from the person who brought her to Kuwait on work. In case it becomes impossible, then the embassy will have to send her back on the basis of out pass.

The woman had gone to Kuwait with her husband on January 2, 2018 after both of them bagged employment.  Her husband however died in a few days while working elsewhere. Meanwhile, Reshma was forced into slavery by the household at which she had been appointed to look after household work The victim was deprived of food and pay and was also tortured being made to work from 7 am to 12 pm. Reshma was effectively under house arrest with not being allowed to go out of the house or make a call and whenever the family went out, the doors of the houses would remain locked. She was fortunately rescued by Indian social workers in a swift action and handed over to Indian Embassy officials on July 4, 2019.