Dubai maid who jumped from Ajman building to flee from agent, flies home

Dubai: She reportedly jumped from a building in Ajman while trying to flee from a recruitment agent. With multiple injuries, she remained unconscious in Dubai’s Rashid Hospital for about two months. Indian maid Asma finally flew home on Wednesday after the hospital waived her bills for three months and the Indian Consulate in Dubai assisted her with her repatriation.

According to the mission, the woman was brought to their notice by the hospital staff while the consulate’s officials were on their routine visit to the hospital to support unattended Indian patients.

Jitender Singh Negi, Consul (Labour and Consular Service) told Gulf News that the hospital had no information about the woman till she woke up from a coma more than two months after she was admitted.

“She said she was mistreated and wanted to run away from the agent who had brought her to the UAE,” said Negi.

“While trying to flee, she jumped from the second floor of a building in Ajman on June 21. Who had taken her to the emergency department is not known. Nobody went to visit her later.”

Once she regained her consciousness, Asma was able to convey her details in Mumbai and the hospital here got in touch with her family.

Following this, the consulate was able to retrieve a copy of the woman’s passport, using which they made an emergency certificate (EC) — a one-way travel document for Indians without a valid passport.

Apart from the free EC, the mission also aided her with a free air ticket home.

“We visited her in the hospital and did the required documentation. Since she was unable to visit any BLS Centre (the outsourced service provider for Indian passport services), we got her signatures on the papers needed for EC from the hospital itself,” said Negi.

Meanwhile, he said, the hospital authorities waived the entire bill for her treatment for three months and also liaised with immigration authorities to facilitate the return of the hapless woman.

Neeraj Agrawal, consul for Press, Information and Culture at the Consulate, thanked the Rashid Hospital for the kind gesture.

“We are thankful to them that they waived her entire bill for three months’ treatment,” he said.

Though her condition had improved considerably, Asma still required a wheel chair to move around at the airport.

Negi said she was able to fly alone because of which there was no requirement for arranging anyone to escort her. He said her relatives received her after she landed back home.

Sheltering and repatriating runaway maids and other Indian women in distress is one of the important community welfare activities of the Indian Consulate in Dubai.

Around 115 such women have repatriated by the mission so far this year.

Last year, 317 women in distress had sought assistance from the mission. The consulate spent over Rs3.5million for providing food, accommodation and transportation, excluding air tickets, for aiding those distressed women in 2019.

C U Soon, India’s first ‘made-at-home’ film during the COVID-19 lockdown — a thriller in Malayalam, starring popular actor Fahadh Faasil, has highlighted the role of the mission in rescuing migrant Indian women duped by recruitment agents.

Last week, the consulate also issued free ECs for two male workers who had lost their jobs and were roughing it out in Ajman amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gurdip Singh Goraya, 36 and Charanjit Singh, 46, from the north Indian state of Punjab, had found help from Joginder Singh Salaria, who runs Pehal Charitable Trust (PCT Humanity) after he watched a video seeking help to find their families posted by a Pakistani youth on August 28.

Licensed by the International Humanitarian City in Dubai, the trust provided shelter to the workers, temporary financial aid to their families and sponsored their flight tickets.

“The Consulate helped with all the paper works to facilitate their repatriation. A PRO was assigned for following it up with different entities. The Indian Embassy also supported as one of them had Abu Dhabi visa,” said Salaria.

The workers thanked Salaria and the missions. In a video message, Gurdip, who cannot walk without support following a road accident that injured his right leg, thanked him for also arranging transportation from Amritsar Airport to their houses.