“I worked for Bin Laden’s company in Saudi Arabia as a ship welder. The company produced highly inflammable toxic gas used for welding. My job required me to dive under water and weld ships.”
What do you remember about working there?
“I had worked for the company for over two years and every time we raised our concerns over the low salary, they ignored us. The company was aware that we could not quit on will as we were under legal contract and the breach would mean that our visa status would automatically render illegal. One day someone suggested we should flee and get work outside where the salary would be a few times more than what we were earning. He also promised he knew a broker who could get us work easily. So everyone agreed. And as promised we got work and the pay was 3000 riyal a month compared to the 600 riyal we were getting. I was able to save and send money home every month. On the seventh month, while I was working at the Samsung power plant the immigration raided the compound and everyone got arrested, handcuffed, loaded inside a truck and taken to an open field in Badan. The temperature then was 52 degrees celsius. We spent seven long days at this field in this temperature. It was almost like we were living inside a stove and breathing fire. Every time someone collapsed they would be taken inside the mosque only briefly but again was sent outside in the open. A few of the Saudi’s would give us food to eat. This was like torture and what made it worse was the fact the we were in a foreign land. Somehow the embassy rescued us and we were sent back to Nepal.”
Would you go there again?
“Yes, I have a flight tomorrow but this time I am going to Qatar. I don’t have any education. If I were to look for work here, the maximum salary for a person like me would be not more that 10-12 thousands. How can one survive with that money? I have a small daughter and I want her to go to school and get proper education so that she doesn’t have to live life with sorrow and regret. So I have to make money for that, for my daughter and this is the only choice I have.”
– Prabhu Ram Karki, From Betali 3, Ramechap. Met him in Tudikhel, Kathmandu