By Adil Lateef
Srinagar: When 25-year-old Irfan Ahmad boarded his flight to Riyadh, his heart brimmed with hope. A recruitment agency in Srinagar had promised him a well-paying job in a five-star hotel. His family, already burdened with loans, had scraped together rupees 3.5 lakh to pay for his visa, paperwork, and travel.
“It’s a golden opportunity,” the recruiter had assured him. “You’ll be earning in Saudi Riyals and sending good money back home.”But within days of landing, Irfan’s dream turned into a nightmare.
Instead of a hotel job, he found himself in a small, dimly lit restaurant, washing dishes for 12 hours a day. His promised salary of 3,500 Riyals never materialised. Instead, he received a meager 800 Riyals ( rupees 17,000) per month—barely enough to survive in an unfamiliar country.Irfan is not alone.
Over the past few years, dozens of Kashmiri youth have been deceived by private job agencies promising lucrative careers in Gulf countries, only to be trapped in menial jobs with exploitative contracts.
The deception follows a similar pattern: young men, mostly from lower-middle-class families, pay hefty sums to agencies, believing they are securing stable employment abroad. But once they land in Saudi Arabia, reality hits hard.
One of the cruelest aspects of this exploitation is the binding contracts. Many workers, desperate to escape their grim conditions, are shocked to learn that they are legally bound to their employers for two years. If they attempt to leave, they face penalties as high as rupees 2 lakh.
“I was forced to sign an Arabic contract. I didn’t understand a word of it,” says 27-year-old Adil, another victim. “Later, I learned that I had no right to leave before my contract ended unless I paid a huge fine.”
For 23-year-old Sameer, who hails from north Kashmir, the ordeal has been physically and emotionally exhausting. “I share a room with eight others. We barely get time to sleep after long shifts,” he says.
Many workers are crammed into shared spaces, surviving on one meal a day to save money. Calls to their families in Kashmir are filled with silent tears and regret. Some have developed health issues due to malnourishment and stress but cannot afford medical care.
For 29-year-old Tariq from South Kashmir, even returning home is impossible. “My employer seized my passport. I feel like a prisoner,” he reveals. The infamous Kafala system in Gulf countries grants employers immense power over migrant workers, making it nearly impossible for them to leave without permission.
Families back home, devastated by the betrayal, have started raising concerns, but little action has been taken. “We sold our land to send our son abroad. Now he’s stuck there, and we can’t do anything,” laments Irfan’s father.
Meanwhile, a family in Srinagar is pleading for help to secure the release of Abdul Rafi Baba, a networking engineer who has been imprisoned in Saudi Arabia for four years.Rafi, a resident of Soura, had been working at King Faisal University in Hofuf before his sudden arrest in early 2020.
His father, Manzoor ul Haq Baba, says they have no clear information about the charges against him. Colleagues claim he was arrested due to issues within his company.
The family has made several appeals to Indian authorities, including Home Minister Amit Shah and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, but has received no response.
With limited financial resources, they are unable to fight his case in Saudi Arabia.
Rafi’s two young children continue to wait for their father’s return, holding onto the hope that he will be home soon. The family is urging the government to intervene and help bring him back.
