Ahmed Abdul Majeed wants justice.
Born in India, for more than 40 years he lived in Saudi Arabia, employed at a travel agency, booking trips for the royal family, building the company.
“I used to work a lot,” he said. “Seven days a week.”
For the past two years, Majeed, 67, has lived in the Devon Avenue Indian community with his son, Ahmed Abdulumer, a food delivery driver and American citizen. It was his son, 34, who brought Majeed to my attention.
“My father,” Abdulumer wrote, “was a victim of forced labor and human trafficking.”
The details are complicated. We should probably start by explaining the kafala system, the tradition of immigrants existing in rightless limbo in Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern nations.
“Unfortunately, migrant workers in Saudi Arabia have little to no control over their lives,” Abdulumer wrote. “The status quo in Saudi Arabia for decades has been the kafala system for migrant workers which had been exploiting, stealing wages, imprisoning, raping, falsifying charges and killing countless workers over many decades. This system strips workers of their freedom and dignity, silences complaints and grants employers near-total control over their lives.”
Some workers are brought in under false pretenses. Others enter with eyes open — the money is good, relative to their homelands. Being on the bottom of the social ladder in Saudi Arabia is still better than being on the bottom of the social ladder in Bangladesh.
Majeed put in four decades in an office, only to be threatened with arrest, his passport seized, then forced to work for free for six months, sell the family home in India and hand over the proceeds — about $100,000 — to get his passport back and be allowed to leave the country.
Given the notoriously brutal conditions foreign workers face, what did Majeed expect would happen?
“I’m supposed to have a good life with my family after serving the four decades,” he said. “We built a company from scratch. I never expected the person who generated millions of dollars to the company end up selling his own property.”
From the moment he left Saudi Arabia, Majeed has been trying to get satisfaction for how he was treated.
“I landed in India 8th of September, 2020,” he said. “Immediately I went to the prime minister’s office. I traveled by train with my son” — he has four children. “We tried to meet the prime minister of India. He did not meet me, but he forwarded my case to the Indian embassy in Riyadh. No response.”
How many survivors of kafala system abuses are in Chicago? Numbers are impossible to find. The Indian consulate said they know nothing about it.
“No one from the Indian diaspora mentioned or complained of any such thing as yet,” said Sanjeev Kumar Pal, the press officer at the Consulate General of India in Chicago.
Organizations that keep track of immigrant workers rights sometimes encounter similar situations.
“We’re grateful it’s not something super common,” said Shelly Ruzicka, communications director at Arise Chicago, a West Side group that helps immigrant workers recover stolen wages. “We have some stories, particularly with au pairs, sometimes with the J-1 visa.”
She was referring to problems in this country, not Saudi Arabia. With the rise of ICE, and immigrants being demonized and shorn of legal protections, the threat of the United States ending up with its own de facto kafala system is a real possibility.
“Yes,” agreed Ruzicka. “We are very worried about that, under this administration. We’re starting to hear stories. We’re seeing a dilution of [immigrant workers’] rights. They are made to be more fearful, reluctant to speak up. Immigrant workers’ bosses are feeling bolder. Different types of abuses are fairly common in low paid jobs — regular injuries on high speed machines, not being paid overtime, things like that we are seeing on a regular basis.”
Majeed is clawing at a brick wall. What keeps him going?
“The day I landed here, I decided to fight for justice, he said. “There are so many people like my case. The Saudis have to realize: you cannot deny justice for the people who serve you. The world must know.”
After years of effort, he’s had “zero response.” So how is a story in the Sun-Times going to help?
“Once it is published in the Sun-Times, I am sure Saudi embassy will take note and they will contact me and I will get justice before I pass this world,” Majeed said. “I am sure about this.”
And if nothing happens? Will he ever give up?
“I cannot,” he said. “But I am sure, a newspaper like yours, which millions of people read, the Saudi embassy will take note. They will contact me. And I will get justice.”