Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH — The story of an Indian worker who had not traveled to his home country even once in the past 25 years is heart-touching.

An illegal resident in Saudi Arabia for more than two decades, Syed Said Mahboob Saab had arrived in the Kingdom in 1992 at the age of 40 to try his luck working as a tailor.

Hailing from Bengaluru in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, Saab was married with four daughters. Without a stable income, his family was wallowing in poverty. On top of that, the desperate father was worried about the expenses of marrying off his daughters one by one.

Dowry, a widely spread social illness in south Asian countries, is a nightmare for poor parents with several daughters, and this has led many of them to explore work opportunities in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. It is also one of the reasons several poverty-stricken expatriates stay back in the country irrespective of their legal status so long as they can save a little bit of money.

Like many others, Saab remained in the Kingdom despite having his residency documents expired with the sole goal of marrying off his daughters.

Saab's younger daughters who were little children when he left them two decades ago are now grown-up women and they asked their 65-year-old father to respect the law of the land and return home, and not to worry about the cost of their dowry.

Saab has worked at construction sites during the day as a daily-wage laborer while sticking to his job of stitching dresses at night. Thanks to hard work, he was able to provide a decent life to his family and good education to his children. Two of his daughters are already married and the other two work in the private sector.

He, however, was not able to build a house of his own, but he thought giving a good education to the girls was more important than owning a house.

Saab was away from his family for a long time, yet he has always been a loving father, who cared to fulfill every need of his children despite his meager income.

Technology helped him see his grown-up daughters though he heard only their voices for so many years.

“When I left India my youngest daughter, Waheeda Naaz, was only 3 years old. Thank God, she is now 28 and working,” said Saab.

“She barely remembers my face, except through photos. Now with the facility for video chat, I can see her shedding tears while asking me to return home. She tells me not to worry about her marriage or dowry. As a working woman she is confident of contributing her part of the price for a groom,” he said with a laugh.

Saab had worked many years in Riyadh before moving to Dammam. No longer able to scout a job and under constant pressure from his daughters, he finally decided to return home after 25 long years.

There was no biometric system in place when Saab arrived in the Kingdom 25 years ago and that proved to be a stumbling block for his departure. However, with the help of social worker Nass Shoukat Ali Vokkam, he was able to complete the exit procedures and leave the Kingdom for good.