Biju Kunhappan, Riyadh Area Operations Manager of Al Abeer Medical Group, delivers airline tickets to Muhammad Kutty at a recent function at Al Abeer Medical Center in Batha, Riyadh. — Courtesy photo Hassan Cheruppa Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — A poor Indian national and his five-member family who found no way to go home for several years as a victim of huroob (declared absconding by his employer) have finally left the Kingdom recently thanks to the royal reprieve plus the generosity of an expatriate businessman. Muhammad Kutty from Palakkad district of the south Indian state of Kerala and his family members were given free airline tickets by Muhammad Alungal, Chairman and Managing Director of Al Abeer Medical Group. Biju Kunhappan, Riyadh Area Operations Manager of Al Abeer Group, handed over the tickets to Kutty and his family members at a function at Al Abeer Medical Center in Batha, Riyadh. Prominent expatriate social worker and consultant of Non-Resident Keralites Affairs (NORKA) Shihab Kottukad, Al Abeer Operations Supervisor Shamseer, Accounts Manager Sulfikar Ali, Customer Care Supervisor Aneesh Raheem, Dr. Jacob, and Dr. Prasad were also present at the function. Kutty, who arrived in the Kingdom in 1990, had to undergo financial troubles and miseries after his sponsor reported him huroob eight years ago. Firstly, he worked at a décor shop in Hail for four years. His ordeal began after transferring sponsorship to another Saudi employer. In the beginning, everything went smoothly and that prompted him to bring his wife and one-year old girl child to the Kingdom. Kutty's son and two daughters were born in the Kingdom.
Later on, financial difficulties started biting him and he struggled to make ends meet. In the midst of this, it was an utter shock and dismay for Kutty to know that his sponsor reported him huroob. Kutty said that the last eight years were nightmarish for him as well as for his wife and four children. He was imprisoned several times mainly for not carrying residency permit (iqama) and working with those other than their sponsors. A huge debt trap made his life more miserable. He made several desperate attempts to get out of the huroob category and leave the Kingdom for good but to no avail. Kutty said that the three-month grace period announced by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah in early April was a great blessing for him and his family. Even though he got an Emergency Certificate from the Indian Embassy of Riyadh, he found no way to get six tickets for him and family members. “The ticket charges are almost double in the peak season of summer vacation and it is very difficult to get tickets even at this high fare,” Kutty said while thanking Alungal for his humanitarian gesture at this critical juncture of his life. He also thanked Shihab Kottukad, and others for their commendable services to facilitate his family's return home.
