A 52-year-old Indian national, who has been illegally living in the deserts of Saudi Arabia for 24 years, will return home soon after the government announced a 90-day amnesty period, according to a media report.

Gana Prakasam Rajamariyan came to Saudi Arabia in August 1994 to work as a farmhand in a remote village in Hail province. Mr. Rajamariyan, hailing from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu, said he was paid Saudi Riyal 100 a month for six months by his first employer. He was then “transferred” to another employer and a third a few months later. He has spent 24 years in the desert, without going home even once, a report in Saudi Gazette said. “Of the three employers, I was not sure which one was my sponsor. Moreover, I did not receive any salary, so I decided to live illegally,” the newspaper quoted him as saying.

He said his destiny was the deserts where he spent half of his life. “My four daughters were very young when I left home. Now when I return, I have grandchildren of the same age.”

Rajamariyan said he was able to marry off three of his daughters with his earnings in Saudi Arabia. He did not own a house, nor did he have the Aadhaar card or voter identity card, all of which were introduced after he left the country.

He made his last phone call to his wife, Ronikyam, before she was admitted to hospital in 2015. Thereafter, he did not call her up as she was unable to speak and died a year later.

Rajamariyan has completed the formalities for his return to India with the help of the Hail-based social worker Sarfuddin Thayyil. He hopes to leave Saudi Arabia soon.

Thousands of Indian workers stranded in Saudi Arabia after travelling there illegally and those who overstayed their visas, including a large number from Tamil Nadu, are ready to return home under a 90-day amnesty period announced by the Saudi government.

“By approaching the passport departments to solve their status from March 29, illegal workers will be exempt from the consequences associated with the deportee fingerprint system and will be able to return to the Kingdom on the condition of pursuing legal methods to gain entry,” the General Directorate of Passports in Saudi Arabia said last month.