New Delhi: A 52-year-old Indian national, who has been living in the deserts of Saudi Arabia illegally for 23 years, will soon return to India after the government announced a 90-day amnesty period, according to a media report. Gana Prakasam Rajamariyan came to Saudi Arabia in August 1994 to work as a farm-hand in a remote village in Hail province. Rajamariyan, hailing from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu, said he was paid only 100 Saudi Riyal a month for six months by his first employer.
He was then transferred to another employer and a third a few months later. He spent 23 years in the desert, without going home once, a Saudi Gazette report said. Of the three employers, I was not sure which one was my sponsor. Above all, I did not receive any salary from them, so I decided to abscond and live illegally out of compulsion, the newspaper quoted Rajamariyan as saying. He said his destiny was the deserts where he spent half of his life. “My four daughters were very young when I left home. Now when I return, I have grandchildren of the same age,” he said.
Rajamariyan said he was able to marry off three of his four daughters with his earnings in Saudi Arabia. He said he did not own a house nor did he have the Aadhaar card or a voter ID, all of which were introduced after he left the country.
He made his last phone call to his wife, Ronikyam, before she was admitted to hospital in 2015. After that he did not call her as she was not able to speak and died a year later.
Rajamariyan has completed all formalities for his return to India with the help of Hail-based social worker Sarfuddin Thayyil. He hopes to leave Saudi Arabia soon.
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