CHENNAI: The wounds on her hands are flaking and her hair, cut forcefully by her employers, is slowly growing back, but it will be quite some time before Sundari Manickam is able to pick up the pieces of her life. The 45-year-old is among several women who fell victim to agents who promised them a better future in the Gulf, only to be abused and underpaid by employers or pushed into the sex trade.

“When the agent, my neighbour, told me I could earn a good salary as a domestic help in Kuwait, I didn’t think twice,” says Sundari, who took a loan to pay the agent Rs 60,000. Her dream turned sour the day she landed in Kuwait and began working for a family. “They made me use acid to clean the bathrooms without any protection. When my skin broke into blisters I asked to be taken to a doctor, but they refused,” she says. The family cut her hair after they found a strand in their food. “They denied me food for an entire day. I escaped to the embassy the following day.”

More than half a dozen workers returned here this week with tales of abuse, harassment and sexual exploitation. Most of them are from broken families and were duped by city-based agents.

“My agent got a handsome amount after selling me to a household in Kuwait. When my employers refused to pay my salary, I called him repeatedly, but he did not answer. My papers were with my employers and I had nowhere to go,” says Anushya Begum, 27, who escaped by slithering down a drainpipe. “I sought refuge in the embassy and had to wait two months for my passport to be returned,” says the woman whose husband deserted her and their one-year-old daughter.

The women say thousands more are languishing in the Gulf without help. “At the embassy, we met so many women with shocking stories,” says Nadhiya Pazhani, 30, who escaped from a sex-trafficking ring.

According to the overseas affairs ministry, about 5 lakh Indians work in Kuwait, 48% of whom are in the unroganised sector.

The workers have appealed to the government to bring back the thousands of workers in the embassy shelter and in jails.

