Kuwait Times

Published Date: August 31, 2007
By Ben Garcia, Staff writer

Santhi Kannan Kombre is a 43-year-old woman from Telecherry, India, who arrived in Kuwait on February 25, 2007. Santhi, a widow with three grown children, was recruited by a local agency in Kerala, India who promised her a job as an English teacher in Kuwait. But to her dismay, when she arrived in Kuwait, she landed working as an English tutor for a wealthy family. Sadly, that job lasted for only two months and the family returned her to the local agent after telling her that they planned to relocate to th
e United States for some sort of medical treatment that could last for years. She received a meager salary of only KD 50 for the two months that she worked with the family.

It took her another 15 days to find a second sponsor. For Santhi it really didn't matter now that she might end up working as a maid in a household as she needed the money badly to pay up the 80,000 rupees that she had borrowed to pay the recruiting agency. Besides, she also needed money to pay for her daughter's education who was studying at a university. She waited until she landed a new job with her next sponsor who turned out be an old Indian lady from Delhi. She worked for her in the hope that she wo
uld be paid her promised wage of KD 65. A month passed, and there was no sign of any salary coming in, then two months passed, but still her sponsor gave her no indication of her intention to pay.

She claimed that in those two months she was harshly treated by her Indian sponsor and there were times when she was not even given food to eat. In fact once on not being satisfied with the fruit juice that she had prepared, the sponsor tossed the glass of juice on her face. Santhi gulped down the insult and the pain only because she urgently needed the money.

I stayed there for three long months in the hope that I would still receive my dues one day, but I was wrong. The sponsor told me in no uncertain terms that I would not receive any salary for another five months. I cried because I had been waiting for my salaries for a long time and here she was telling me that I won't be receiving my salaries," she lamented.

Santhi finally gave up hope, but even then giving up hope was not an easy task. She informed her sponsor of her intentions to leave but instead of allowing her to go, the sponsor locked her up in her room for two days without any food. She was lucky though when one of the lady's daughters visited her mother on the third day of her confinement. After she was given food, the daughter advised her to run away (which she did eventually). But the sponsor just couldn't come to terms.

When the old lady heard I planned to run away, she slapped my face and snatched my mobile phone. A man who was a regular visitor at the house came and discreetly took me back to the agency," she recalled.

Her ordeal however did not end there. Santhi had to wait for another two days to be transferred to another sponsor. From then on, it was a never-ending journey of being transferred from one employer to another and again to another.

I accepted job offers even if they were on a trial basis or even doing house to house chores on a daily basis, but I was not satisfied. The sponsors were all greedy, all they wanted is to see people working like slaves. I couldn't take it anymore, so while being employed with my tenth sponsor, I decided to run away - this time to my embassy.

She claimed that even at the embassy she was treated very shabbily there. She was told to leave the embassy and look for a job outside. She then ended up talking with a community leader whom she met in Abbassiya (Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh area). The man provided her shelter to live - but at a cost of KD 10 per month. The place was crowded with Malayali speaking ladies, who she said were rude and unfriendly despite hailing from the same country.

They finally managed to get rid of me from the accommodation, and now being homeless I fervently prayed to meet someone who could be of any help to me," said Santhi. Her prayers were finally answered when she met a kind Indian nurse living in Abbassiya, who temporarily gave her shelter and a place to live in. Knowing it was temporary, she said she couldn't sleep well as her life's survival in Kuwait had been one big rollercoaster ride - hopping from one sponsor to another and begging and pleading from on
e person to another.

But then what about her debt, her family - most of all how long could she keep begging from people to survive? Her embassy didn't care, she said, as she was pleading for help every single day. "I want a job. I want to work here. I need a job to support my family and pay my debts taken from others. I have a daughter studying in the university, I am a widow, I lost my husband four years ago, I need to work and survive and support my family," she sobbed.