Homeless Indian worker in Oman threatens to end life
Thursday, 18/10/2012
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/homeless-indian-worker-in-oman-threatens-to-end-life/1016964/
A homeless Indian worker in Oman has threatened to end his life until and unless he gets help to return to his home land.
Mohammad Rafiq, in a letter to M. Bheem Reddy, Vice-President of the Migrants Rights’ Council (MRC), pleaded for help to return to India, as he has no job and home in Oman.
“I am living in a farmhouse, suffering with hernia, kidney pain, and joint pains,” Rafiq wrote to the MRC, which is based in Hyderabad.
“I have four daughters and one son, please send me back to India otherwise I will commit suicide in Muscat and my family will die in India,” he threatened.
According to Gulf News, Bheem Reddy, who came to Muscat earlier this year to take up similar cases with the Indian embassy, forwarded the letter to Rita Samuel, who runs a Helpline website to assist workers in distress.
“I have taken up Mohammad’s case with the Indian embassy and the officials have assured me that if he obtains a medical certificate they will speed up his repatriation case with the local authorities,” Samuel said.
Rafiq came to Oman with a reputed company as a plumber in 2008, but after working for a year with the company he was talked into opening a coffee shop by an acquaintance.
“I found the proposal to start a coffee shop attractive so I quit my job with the company and went back,” the report quoted Rafiq, as saying.
But when he returned on a new employment visa he realised there was no coffee shop and he was made to dig an open plot in Ibri.
