RIYADH, 3 December 2006 — The story of Abdul Rahman, an Indian national working in the suburbs of Riyadh, is a human tragedy. He accepted a job as a lorry driver in the Kingdom in hopes that he would earn some money and live a better life. He did not know that his fate at the hands of a local sponsor would leave him with no accommodation, barely enough money to eat and live and nowhere to go. He does not possess an iqama (a residence permit which all non-Saudis must have). Neither does he have a driver’s license. The only thing he knows in Saudi Arabia is the route that takes him 250 km north of Riyadh to the well where he fills his sponsor’s tanker with water and then returns.
When Abdul Rahman first came to the Kingdom, his sponsor assured him he would be well taken care of. That, he alleges, was the first falsehood. “He got me into his car and drove me back and forth along this route which I take every day. He told me this was the route I would be driving but he didn’t give me any details.”
Abdul Rahman’s job is to fill the water tanker every week from the well north of Riyadh and then sell the water to customers in the suburbs of the city. In the evenings, he makes himself as comfortable as he can inside the cab and tries to sleep. He never knows when a customer will bang on the tanker asking for a fill up. “I live alone. I do not even know what the inside of Riyadh looks like,” he said.
Half his SR700 monthly salary — which is sometimes paid two or three months late by his sponsor — is spent on food and drinks and he is usually left with less than SR300. “I have seven children in India whom I have to provide for,” he explained.
His only comfort, he says, is to listen to the voices of his wife and children for a minute or two every week when he calls them from a friend’s cell phone. “Some of my customers who understand my condition have also helped me by offering their cell phones for a few minutes,” he said.
Good-hearted people who sympathize with him offer him food and drinks as well as blankets and clothes.
For the past year, Abdul Rahman has not had the luxury of living in a four-walled room. His sponsor’s tanker is in fact his mobile home. That is where he sleeps, rests, and waits for customers to arrive 24 hours a day, nonstop. “I also have the responsibility of guarding the water tanker,” he said.
Abdul Rahman says his sponsor refuses to allow him to go to Makkah to perform Umrah or Haj. The excuse given is that Abdul Rahman does not have an iqama — which is true but an iqama is a document he should have been given within a few days of his arrival in the Kingdom.
The man says he was a Qur’an teacher in India and since he arrived in Saudi Arabia a year ago, he has had no access to TV, radio or any media. He says he does not know what is going on back in India or in the Kingdom. He says he feels suspended between two worlds.
When we asked him for his sponsor’s number so we could talk to him, Abdul Rahman refused, saying he did not want to get into trouble. “You can help me out by giving me a blanket. It’s cold now in Riyadh and I have asked my sponsor for two weeks now to give me one. Each time he says ‘Insha Allah.’”
