Sumi Akhter -- a housemaid whose video appealing for help after alleged torture in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia went viral on social media -- has returned home. She made international headlines earlier this month when she alleged in a video on social media that she was being tortured after being “lured into Saudi Arabia with a promise of a good job.”
Sumi could not take the torture anymore and has returned home. But there are so many more women who remain entrapped in the desert Kingdom.
No sooner had Sumi's depressing ordeal in Saudi Arabia finished its due time on the Bangladeshi airwaves another female migrant worker's plea went viral on social networking site - Facebook.
This time, it is 24-year-old Hosna Akhter from Ajmiriganj Upazila in the Habiganj district.
"I am Hosna Akhter. My agent sent me to Saudi Arabia with lucrative job offers. I work in the Nazraan Area. However, things are not well down here. They are abusive. It has been over 10-12 days; I could not take it anymore. As I shared my disappointment, they became even more oppressive and violent."
"I made contact with people from the agency, but they were not nice to me. It is unbearable. Please save me by any means. They do not want to send me back home. They are doing horrible things with me. I am going through excruciating pain days and nights," said Hosna who hails from Habiganj.
Investigating the matter, this correspondent has identified the video caller as Hosna Akhter, 24, hailing from Anandapur village under Ajmiriganj Upazila in Habiganj. In an effort to secure financial stability, she made her journey to Saudi Arabia as a housemaid through a recruiting agency - Arab World Distribution, some 20 days ago.
In a dramatic turn as opposed to what she was supposed to receive at her work place, Hosna send a video post to her husband Shafiullah - revealing her suffering and tormenting experience.
Hosna's husband then approached agency officials concerned but met with strange demands. They spoke badly about Hosna's character and demanded Tk 100,000.
Anxious Shafiullah, in a desperate bid to save his wife, managed to post the video clip in the social networking site, Facebook with the assistance of his cousin.
According to family sources, only three-months into her marriage, Hosna decided to work in Saudi Arabia. Some 20 days ago, she took up a housemaid’s job with the help of a broker-agent Shahin and travelled to Saudi Arabia. Hosna was told that she would have to work at a house and will be compensated with a monthly salary of Tk 22,000.
But things turned worse when she arrived in Saudi. Exhausting work load and physical abuse by the homeowner have made Hosna sick.
Shafiullah said: “Within one week after going to Saudi Arabia, Hosna called me and informed of the domestic abuse on her. I immediately asked her to come back.
“But the agency through which she went, is not allowing her to come back. They also insulted her using obscene language after she called them over the phone.”
“After Hosna went to the agency office in Saudi Arabia, people over there beat her up,” Shafiullah added.
Ajmiriganj UNO Nayeema Khadaker said: “We have already contacted the Foreign Ministry about the matter. Right now the ministry is trying to contact the Saudi agency to bring Hosna back to Bangladesh.”