27 Punjabi are stuck in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates

27 people from Punjab and four from neighboring states like Himachal Pradesh are reported to be stuck in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after being duped by travel agents, a report said on Thursday.

Duped by travel agents, 27 people from Punjab are reported to be stuck in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a report said on Thursday. Four other men from neighbouring states like Himachal Pradesh are also part of the group. The names of the 31 men have been sent to the Ministry of External Affairs by Aam Aadmi Party’s Garhshankar MLA Jai Kishan Singh and chief AAP spokesperson Harjot Singh Bains, requesting help in bringing them back.The Times of India reported Bains as saying that the men were duped by unscrupulous travel agents on the pretext of providing them work in the two West Asian countries. He said once the 27 Punjabis and others reached the Arab countries, their passports were taken away. Now, they cannot return to India until the Centre intervenes at the government level, he added. Bains further warned that as many as 300 men from Punjab could be stuck in several countries. The two AAP leaders said fake travel agents have been running a racket of illegal migration, which leads to the detention of the duped



men in Arab countries.

The report also highlighted the dismal states in which these men were living in the Arab countries. Joginder Singh, the owner of a cycle repair shop in Chahal Khurd village of Punjab’s Nawanshahr district, said both his sons are unable to return from the UAE. According to him, his sons’ employer got arrested for some offence and he is not ready to give them back their travel documents. “For several days, my sons, who are in their late 30s, have been out on the streets without food and shelter. In extreme heat, they are sitting under a temporary shed along with five men from other parts of Punjab. 

They need immediate help,” TOI quoted Joginder as saying. The two men had gone to the West Asian country to earn money as the family had a big loan to repay.It is not the first time men from Punjab and other neighboring states have got stuck in the Middle East. Just recently, bodies of 27 men from Punjab and four from Himachal Pradesh were brought back from Iraq, where they were abducted from Mosul and subsequently killed by the Islamic State terror group. Back in 2014, a company had locked some 250 Punjabis in a basement in Iraq’s Najaf. They were eventually rescued by the Union government.