With dreams of building a better life for herself and her family, Kamala (32) along with her younger sister Raji (30) boarded a sleeper class private bus from Amalapuram, the administrative headquarters of Dr BR Ambedkar Konaseema district, to Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport on May 12, 2025.
The sisters were accompanied by several other women on the bus, all with the same destination: Muscat. The group reached Muscat International Airport (MCT) in Oman via Mumbai the next evening.
Recalling the initial excitement of taking the first step towards her dream, Kamala said that her Muscat-based agent, also a native of Konaseema, sent a driver to pick her up from the airport. The driver identified the sisters using photographs, took their passports immediately after introduction and then dropped them off at the agent’s office. For the next fortnight, the sisters, along with other young women, were trained by the agent to work as “house maids”.
“Like us, there was another group of 13 young women, mostly from our area, who were brought by our agent with the promise of similar work – as domestic maids,” said Kamala, a mother of two boys, aged 7 and 5.
Kamala, who worked as a nurse in a private hospital, quit her job, while Raji, a dropout, gave up sewing for their shared dream – to fly to the Gulf, earn money and return to their village to build their own house. Kamala and Raji, also a mother of two, live in separate rented houses with their families in the same village on the outskirts of Amalapura, part of Konaseema district, a coconut land in Andhra Pradesh, where the Godavari River meets the Bay of Bengal.
The sisters said their opportunity came when their husbands supported their decision and helped them find agents recruiting women for jobs in the Gulf.
“By December 2025, Dr BR Ambedkar, about 15,000 unemployed workers from Konaseema district had migrated to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries—Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. More than 70% of them were young women, most of whom found employment as domestic maids,” G. Ramesh, manager, Konaseema Center for Migration (KCM), said.
overwork and isolation
Kamala said her ordeal began within a fortnight of her beauty session ending. “Once our grooming session was over, we were all presented before the visitors who had come to appoint women of their choice as housemates. My sister Raji was the first to be selected for a five-day trial assignment in her house before being offered full-time work by the sponsor,” said Kamala.
However, Kamala said, “Five days after the first assignment, which tested my sister’s physical stamina, Raji decided not to continue. Dreaded by the labor involved, she returned to India within a month.”
According to an unwritten condition observed by both agents and employers, the sponsor is entitled to retain the woman as a house maid if he is satisfied with her work. Also, she is allowed to decline the offer if she is not ready to continue.
Kamala, who decided to stay put, was hired by another sponsor under a two-year work agreement at a monthly salary of 100 Omani riyals (₹24,152). The sponsor obtained a ‘Resident Card’ (issued by the Government of Oman) and a two-year work visa for Kamala by essentially signing a ‘Guarantee of Responsibility’.
However, by November, Kamala began suffering from frequent illnesses and also suffered separation, allegedly due to overwork. Kamala said, “When I complained of illness, my sponsor gave me medicines for body pain. Suspecting that I might quit the job, he cut off my internet access to prevent communication with my family. I had to continue working even while on medication.”
“When I asked my sponsor to return my passport, he told me that I would have to pay money for my freedom. Then I came to know that my agent had provided me to him on a commission of ₹1.5 lakh, which I had to pay to secure my freedom and get my passport back. I never knew that such a transaction had taken place between my agent and the sponsor,” she said.
Expats become on-site agents
Reportedly, this is the modus operandi of unregistered agents recruiting young women willing to work in the Gulf countries. The price of domestic maids varies depending on the length of employment, which ranges from one month to two years.
Officials highlight that many unauthorized agents know the victims personally. Complaints reveal that job offers often come through relatives or acquaintances settled in Gulf countries. Many former migrants act as on-site agents themselves, and offer commissions to local contacts for recruiting women.
Citing the Ministry of External Affairs’ e-Migrate portal data, KCM said around 1,100 agents are registered to recruit people from Andhra Pradesh for foreign jobs. However, in Dr BR Ambedkar Konaseema district alone, at least 165 unauthorized agents – including 30 women – are active, none of whom are registered on the portal. A deposit of ₹5 lakh and a registered office are the basic requirements for the authority.
KCM sent Kamala back on December 18, 2025. The process began when her sponsor returned her passport after her family arranged and paid ₹1.5 lakh commission. His one month salary is still pending, he said.
The Andhra Pradesh government established the KCM in Amalapuram in March 2025, when District Collector R. Mahesh Kumar urged the government to set up the center after several online appeals for the return of victims to GCC countries.
KCM Manager G. Ramesh said, “Since March 2025, we have ensured the repatriation of 78 victims from GCC countries. Of these, 76 are women whose families approached us to free them from the clutches of unauthorized agents. Seven bodies of workers, including two women who died due to accidents or illness, were also brought back.”
He added, “Most repatriated workers reported health problems and physical abuse due to excessive workload beyond their contracts, lack of rest. They are often abandoned by both local and on-site agents.”
Most victims are not repatriated through Indian embassies. “We try to facilitate repatriation through a recruitment agent. In this model, the agent has to return the commission to the sponsor to retrieve the victim’s passport. This makes the process faster; otherwise, the victim has to pay the commission,” Mr Ramesh said.
Of the 76 victims repatriated since March, only two were provided assistance through Indian embassies. Currently, KCM is handling around 180 complaints related to fraud and workplace abuse.
awareness
Another victim, 36-year-old G. Padma, a mother of two children aged 16 and 14, was sent back on March 13, 2026. A native of Uppalaguptam mandal, she flew to Muscat in June 2023 and completed the two-year period. For four months, during which I was also subjected to physical abuse,” she said. Padma’s husband works as an agricultural labourer.
Suma, who was repatriated from Oman, said, “In my sponsor’s house, I survived on one meal a day for almost two months. My agent blocked my number, leaving me alone.”
According to the special branch of Konaseema police, at least 48 cases have been registered against unauthorized agents in the district under the Emigration Act, 1983. In the last 12 months, ten such cases have been recorded. District Superintendent of Police Rahul Meena said that many of the returned victims were unwilling to take legal action against the agents.
Police personnel are part of the KCM and help locate and facilitate repatriation of agents based on complaints filed by victims’ families. District Collector R. According to an official release by Mahesh Kumar, the Protector of Emigrants (PoE) of Hyderabad has been contacted to strengthen coordination with Indian embassies. PoE officer D. Anand and his team have conducted awareness programs on safe foreign recruitment practices.
Vemuru Ravi Kumar, president of Andhra Pradesh Non-Resident Telugu Society (APNRTS), said the state government has banned recruitment of domestic maids through private agents and made it mandatory to hire them through OMCAP for better security. “More than 90% of abuse complaints come from people not recruited through OMCAP,” he said, adding that contracts are often in Arabic, making them difficult to understand.
The surge continues amid tensions
She said migration from Konasima is largely driven by economic needs, with many women entering on tourist visas and later struggling to obtain work permits.
Even though agents have temporarily slowed down recruitment due to the war, the Post Office Passport Seva Kendra in Amalapuram is seeing a surge in applications. Passport verification officer G Yug Kiran said, “We receive around 600 applications every month. More than 90% of the applications are from women wanting to migrate to Gulf countries.”
Meanwhile, KCM continues to receive distress calls from migrant workers seeking help every day. Even the repatriation of 11 victims, including nine women, has been delayed due to disruption in airport operations in GCC countries due to the ongoing tensions in West Asia.
(The names of the victims have been changed to protect their identities.)
