Click to play videoHyderabad: Twenty-four-year-old Narahari is back home. His hopes of bailing out his family from a financial crisis now lay shattered.
A tailor by profession, Narahari had gone to Dubai on a tourist visa. The plan was to work there for six months and earn a couple of lakhs.
His agent had promised him a job. Narahari paid him Rs 1.2 lakh for his Dubai dreams. But when he landed in Dubai, there was no work.
"When we were being paid peanuts, we went to the officials of the company and questioned them. They said that our agent had sold us for $50,000 to the company. So, we are supposed to take whatever they pay," said Narahari, the victim.
Narahari was not alone. Hundreds of other Indian job-seekers met the same fate in Dubai. While some people were beaten up, in some others' cases, their passports were confiscated. Many others were told to go to Kurdistan. They were told to pay $900 more for a return ticket. Narahari called his parents, who got the local agent arrested.
"To describe it in one line, it was like entering a hell. There was no food to eat. All of us were bundled into one small room. We used to drink water from bathroom taps. The little food that we used to get had come from some Indians who themselves were leading lives of bonded labours," recalls Narahari.
Drought hit Karimnagar district has become a hunting ground for agents fooling unemployed youths. Official statistics say there are more than 1.5 lakh victims in this district alone.
Today, Narahari's mother is no longer worried about the lost money. She is relieved to have her son safe. "We'll never send him again. Be it life or death, it will be in our village," says Ch Narasamma, Narahari's mother.
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