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Distant Dream of a Goan Youth Comes to an End in Saudi Arabia When He Finds Himself Working at Camel Herder

Many Goans Migrate to UAE and UK in search of brighter career options. The entire goal of leaving their home behind is to get better
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Many Goans Migrate to UAE and UK in search of brighter career options. The entire goal of leaving their home behind is to get better opportunities abroad. Unfortunately, all of them do not achieve success in their endeavors. The story of this Goan Village boy seems to be something similar. He went abroad to earn some decent money by getting the job of a driver but to his surprise, he landed into the desert, 300 km away from the capital city of Saudi Arabia, and found himself working as a camel herder.

The local daily of Goa Navhind Times came out with a story on Sameer Naik and according to them, the Goan youth Sameer Naik was forced to work as a camel herder by his employer who stripped his passport, mobile phone, and other documents illegally and beat him up when he refused to work in those adverse conditions.     

According to sources, the Indian Embassy in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia is waiting for the official complaint to be lodged by the Goan youth or Indian government on the behalf of the victim so that they can initiate measures to rescue the youth. Meanwhile, the brother of Sameer, Digambar Naik, who tried to seek help from the local political leaders to bring back his brother, has been unsuccessful till date.

The victim’s brother told Navhind Times that his brother Sameer was promised the job of a driver in Saudi Arabia by one Siraj Ansari, an agent from a Mumbai based overseas recruitment company N S Enterprises. “Sameer left Goa on May 7, earlier this year and was kept at Hyderabad till May 23 by this agent,” he said adding that Sameer was not alone and many people from India were taken to Riyadh with lucrative offers on May 23 this year.

Following the arrival of Sameer to Saudi Arabia he was taken to a desert village and forced to work adverse conditions. The duty which begins at 4 in the morning continued till midnight. He was allowed only 4 hours of time to take some rest, said the sources. “The long hours of work in the blazing sun developed cracks in his feet,” said Digamber, adding that with the grace of God his brother managed to befriend a youth from Pakistan, who helped him by lending his mobile phone to Sameer who then managed to make a call to India and narrated his ordeal to his parents.    

Digamber said that he tried contacting the Indian Embassy in Riyadh for help, but they showed their inability to help Sameer in the absence of an official complaint from any Indian authority. He also revealed that Sameer did not get his employment card till date which is mandatory for migrants to Saudi Arabia. 

Digamber left no stone unturned to help Sameer to get out of that hell hole, but all his efforts became useless. They met a senior Congress MLA as well as a top local Bharatiya Janata Party leader, however, nothing positive resulted out of their assurances, said the sources.

Meanwhile, the media house managed to get the names of Sameer’s employer –  Hamoud Mana Bin Hamdan Qahtani, who belonged to a Nomadic tribe and kept moving in the desert, making it harder to track the exact location of Sameer, said the sources. Speaking to the local daily, Anil said that the nomadic tribes own a huge container on wheels, which is used to cook food and as a resting place for the caretakers of camels. “The caravan is also accompanied by a large water tanker of capacity between 12000 to 15000 liters, used to provide water to the traveling tribe,” he added. The employer and his family stay in large tents.

The present situation is such that neither the Embassy nor the Agent has taken any measures in bringing back Sameer to Goa and there is no clue as to how much time it will take. Goans leave their homes and go in search of a distant dream but when the same gets shattered it is very difficult to recover from the same. There is no knowledge of how many Goans maybe stuck in the desert and having such a horrible experience. If you know any such story, please do share with us and do not forget to leave your valuable comments in the comments box below.          

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