Hyderabad housemaid in Riyadh dies under suspicious circumstances

HYDERABAD: The family of a 27-year-old woman Nasreen Fatima has asked for an investigation into her suspicious death in Saudi Arabia. Fatima, of Al Ain colony, Shaneenagar was working as a housemaid with a family in Riyadh and her kafil (employer) called the family on Sunday to inform them that she had died.
In a letter to Union external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Sunday, Ghousia Begum said her daughter-in-law Nasreen Fatima was in search of a job as they were having financial problems after her husband Syed Feroze met with an accident. Through a local agent, who is also a resident of Shaheenagar and a travel agency in Mumbai, she travelled to Riyadh on August 7, 2017. There, she was employed as a khadama (housemaid) in the house of one Abdullah.
“There was a lot of work pressure and was being asked to work for 15 hours daily and she was not paid salary since last 12 months by her employer. She wanted to return to India but was not being allowed to return. We tried to sort out the issue of bringing her back with a local agent and Mumbai agents but they were not responsive,” Ghousia Begum said.
She said Nasreen Fatima last spoke to them on May 14, and wept on the phone asking that she be brought back to India. In the letter to Sushma Swaraj, Ghousia Begum provided the telephone number on which she was online till May 17 late in the night.
“Today we received a phone call from her Kafeel (employer) that she has died and her body had been shifted to a hospital,” Ghousia Begum said. Nasreen Fatima is survived by two minor children. “Kindly ask the Indian Embassy in Riyadh to inquire the causes of death,” Ghousia Begum said also urging that the family be helped to bring back the body to India.