Indians In Middle East Face Harsh Sentences For Popping Banned Painkiller

AWAITING A MIRACLE

Srinu Pusula spent his childhood grazing sheep and stepped out of his village Tadpakal in Telangana for the first time eight years ago when he boarded a flight to Dubai to work as a labourer. He visited India last year when he got married.

Before he left home, his agent gave his new wife a packet of medicines he said Pusula must deliver to his relative in Dubai. She packed them in his bag and forgot to mention it to her husband.

Pusula was arrested at Dubai airport for carrying half a kilogram of tramadol and convicted in September and sentenced to seven years in prison.

"We built this house with our son's earnings. We never had power supply before. Now we do," Srinu's mother Posani Pusala, 55, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Her only hope now is a mercy petition Indian activists in Dubai will file on Nov. 15.

"Agents are running the racket and targeting labourers," said Krishna Donekeni, founder of Gulf Workers Awareness Centre by phone from Dubai.

Donekeni has met Pusula a few times and lobbied officials at the Indian embassy in Dubai about his case.

"He is young, and away from his family. He hasn't seen his child who was born after he left. He is scared," Donekeni said.

Another migrant rights activist, Bhim Reddy, said Pusula is the third person from Jagtial district who has been convicted in a drug case in the last three years.

LITTLE HOPE

Vobbiliselty has dealt with at least six cases of Indians arrested for using, selling or possessing tramadol tablets, and seen each case end with a sentence of 7 years to up to 24 years, which is life imprisonment.

"India is not doing anything for this problem. Migrant protection officers in India or even immigration officials do not warn workers against carrying this drug," Vobbiliselty said.

Officials in India's foreign ministry said help in drug and alcohol use cases is difficult as UAE has strict laws on them.

"But our consular officers meet them (those arrested in drug cases) and suggest names of empanelled lawyers to fight their cases in the labour court," said M.C. Luther, India's protector general of emigrants

Luther said migrant workers going through government-authorised employment agents are given pre-departure training where they are advised against carrying the banned medicines.

But a sizeable number of workers go through illegal agents and have no idea about the medicines they cannot carry or use.

A spokesperson of the UAE embassy in New Delhi said poor and illiterate migrant workers are entitled to free legal aid.

Motam, whose husband is in a Dubai jail, knows the road ahead is difficult.

She has met various ministers, including India's minister of foreign affairs Sushma Swaraj, to plead her husband's case.

"When he left for Dubai, I thought our life would improve with his earnings. But now I roll 600 beedis (traditional Indian cigarettes) for 70 rupees every day. That is our only source of income," she said.

Tears streaming down her cheeks, she touches the feet of anyone - activist, journalist, village elder - who visits her, mumbling: "Please help me."