Miraculous recovery and repatriation of comatose Indian maid

An Indian maid who reportedly jumped from a building in Ajman while trying to flee from a recruitment agent, has managed to fly home, thanks to the kindness of a UAE hospital and the Indian consulate. The woman who had multiple injuries and was unconscious for about two months in Dubai’s Rashid Hospital finally flew home on September 16, Gulf News reports. The hospital waived her bills for three months and the Indian Consulate in Dubai assisted her with her repatriation.

The case of Indian maid Asma was brought to their notice by the hospital staff during a routine visit by consulate officials to the hospital to support unattended Indian patients.

According to Jitender Singh Negi, Consul (Labour and Consular Service), the hospital had no details about the woman until she woke up from coma more than two months after she was admitted. The woman said she was mistreated by the agent who had brought her to the UAE. While trying to flee, she jumped from the second floor of a building in Ajman on June 21. It was not known who took her to the emergency department of the hospital; she had no visitors either during her hospitalisation.

After she regained consciousness, Asma gave her details in Mumbai and the hospital got in touch with her family. Following this, the consulate was able to retrieve a copy of the woman’s passport, using which they made an emergency certificate — a one-way travel document for Indians without a valid passport and also gave her a free air ticket. All the required documentation was done in the hospital itself as she was unable to visit any BLS Centre, and her signatures on the papers needed for EC were collected from the hospital itself, said Negi.

The hospital authorities magnanimously waived the entire bill for her treatment for three months and also liaised with immigration authorities to facilitate her repatriation.
Neeraj Agrawal, consul for Press, Information and Culture at the Consulate, thanked Rashid Hospital for the kind gesture.

Though Asma needed a wheel chair to move around at the airport, there was no requirement for an escort her, he said. He added that her relatives received her in Mumbai.

Sheltering and repatriating runaway maids and other Indian women in distress is one of the important community welfare activities of the Indian Consulate in Dubai. Although Indian mission and Ministry officials advise job-seekers to use the e-Migrate system, many continue to be duped by fraudulent agents.