An unfortunate end came to Shahzadi Khan, a caregiver of Indian descent, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on 15th February 2025. In a turn of cruel fate, Khan was the victim of an unyielding system. On the evening of 14th February, she made a distressing call to her father, stipulating a shift from her existing prison to a different location. Her father, filled with fear, sought desperately to help his daughter but was met with disinterest and a closed system that moved swifter than he could. His daughter’s life was extinguished on foreign soil, and he was denied the courtesy of personal intimation.
On 28th February, two weeks past the incident, an impersonal text from an Abu Dhabi number delivered, unemotionally, the news of her execution. It took a petition to the Delhi High Court on February 21st for the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) of India to publicly admit the incident on March 4th. A delayed text message, worth two weeks of silence, was all her life was effectively reduced to in the eyes of the MEA.
Now, consider the case of Nimisha Priya, a nurse hailing from Kerala stuck on the brink of a similar plight in Yemen. Convicted and handed a death sentence in 2017 for the murder of her Yemeni enterprise partner, she continues to affirm self-defence during a conflict at their mutual clinic. While her circumstance briefly grabbed public interest, it quickly fizzled out, leaving her prey to the turbulence in Yemen and inconsistency in diplomatic updates.
We see a recurring theme of insufficiency in both Shahzadi’s and Nimisha’s predicaments, highlighting a painfully negligent response on the MEA’s part. In Shahzadi’s case, her family was left unprepared to battle for her life, while Nimisha’s family was supposedly left uninformed as she months went by, her death sentence looming. As an advocate for migrant rights, these oversights test my principles and point towards a deterioration that penetrates deep into the system.
A report presented in the Lok Sabha on 28th March, 2025, illuminates a distressing fact: more than 10,152 Indian citizens await trial or serve time across 86 countries, caught in foreign judicial systems. The numbers in themselves are astounding. Shockingly, 64 percent or 6,478 Indian citizens are detained within prisons of six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.
We see a glaring indictment of two-fold failure: mistreatment on foreign land juxtaposed with indifference on the home front. The GCC countries host 56% of India’s global migrant population. Millions of Indians sweat in their oil fields, construct their high-rise buildings, and perform cleaning work. They fuel the GCC economies, but are treated as expendable.
Although the statistics are stark, they should not lull us into a sense of complacency. The situation is fraught with political tension and volatility. GCC’s labor systems bear resemblance to the structures of modern slavery. A large number of low-skilled workers, mostly from India’s disadvantaged communities, aspire for improved lives. These dreams, however, are often shattered due to the exploitative kafala system, which ties workers’ legal standings to their employers, who unfortunately, are given near-absolute control.
Missteps result in immediate criminal charges. Overstepping a visa, escaping an ill-treatement from an employer, or breaching strict laws on alcohol or drug consumption could easily lead to imprisonment. The harsh situations undergone by Shahzadi and Nimisha represent some of the extreme outcomes that occur due to the entrenched path from labor to incarceration in the GCC.
Regrettably, India’s diplomatic stand in such incidents has been below par, arguably even betrayal. The frustrations are high – Where is the outrage? Where is the unwavering determination to offer protection to our citizens? Our MEA, despite being the custodian of the interests of Indian citizens abroad, appears passive and unresponsive. Our embassies in the GCC countries, despite being endowed with resources and powers, have largely been ineffective.
Even allocated pro-bono lawyers at embassies brush off labor disputes. Quick compensation payment cases, particularly traffic accidents, are favored for their potentially lucrative earnings. In contrast, labor disputes are seen as too complex, slow, and not enough financially rewarding. The rift in priority is dreadful.
Workers are left high and dry, hopelessly grappling with a system that is pitted against them. This inertia exhibited by the MEA is more than simply negligence. It is a deliberate political choice that prioritizes trade agreements and oil ties above human lives. Around 10,152 Indian nationals are languishing in foreign prisons with no significant intervention from the Indian authorities – 6,478 of these are in Gulf nations.
As this crisis calls for a dire political resolution and decisive action, a few steps cannot be overlooked. First, a radical transformation of our diplomatic strategies is essential. Our embassies in GCC countries should be equipped with dedicated units for migrant welfare, consisting of legal professionals, language translators, and counselors. Their purpose should be to fight for all, not just conveniently manageable cases. They should have the capacity to secure repatriation and demand leniency, not passively wait.
Second, India needs to leverage its economic strength. Our immense labor force, which contributes significantly to GCC economies through remittances, should not be taken for granted. Trade agreements must factor in labor rights reforms, compelling these nations to abolish the exploitative kafala system.
Third, a ‘Bring Them Home’ nationwide campaign needs to be initiated. Extensive media coverage, legal aid funding, and public shaming of inaction should form the backbone of this drive. Last but not least, MEA officials need to be brought under scrutiny. Parliament should supervise progress on Indians detained in foreign prisons through mandatory quarterly reports.
The mounting figures of our citizens in GCC prisons – 6,478 souls – are a testament to India’s ingrained indifference. Both Shahzadi’s execution and Nimisha’s precarious situation are the outcomes of a failing system and the challenges to our integrity and empathy. These migrant workers are our compatriots. They are our brothers and sisters, the very backbone of our economies and the embodiment of our dreams. It is not acceptable to abandon them to foreign cells and execution chambers.
Delaying action is not advisable. The time for indignation and action is today. India must rise to the occasion, voice its dissent, and reclaim its compatriots, or be forever marred by this shame of betrayal.