Diwali sparkled early at the Darjeeling home of 29-year-old Sunita when the woman landed in Delhi from the UAE last Saturday.

Sunita, who has a five-year-old son, had gone to Dubai on July 29 with four other women of the region. She was hired as a domestic help in Ajman, a city in the UAE.

“The person who contacted me in Darjeeling said I would be paid Rs 32,000 a month. But I was paid only Rs 20,000. I had problems with food at my employers’ home. I slipped and fell in the bathroom on August 5 and they didn’t administer medicines properly. I just wanted to come home but I could not as the passport was with the Dubai agent who had become hostile,” said Sunita.

Sunita contacted Mankind in Action for Rural Growth (MARG), a Darjeeling organisation that has helped rescue many women from overseas.

MARG, with the help of the Indian embassy in the UAE and former foreign secretary Harshvardan Shringla, managed to fly Sunita home.

Nirnay John Chettri, founder and general secretary of MARG, said Sunita’s story underlines what ails many aspiring overseas workers from the hills .

“She contacted an agent without verifying his credentials. The agent sent her on a tourist visa, not a work visa. She was also not given any basic training for a job abroad. That’s why our people are constantly duped,” said Chettri. “Details of agents should be verified through the ministry of external affairs website,” he said.

Chettri suggests that either the district administration or the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration hold awareness drives in villages on these issues.

He stressed basic training was a must.“Even if she goes as domestic help, a village girl can’t operate a microwave on her own. Hence, basic training in language and jobs they have to do is a must,” Chettri stressed.

Sunita admitted that of the five girls who went, four, including herself, returned in a couple of months or less. “The fifth girl is in Dubai because she has a younger sister there,” said Sunita.

Sunita had to spend a month in a shelter in Dubai after leaving her employer before all formalities to return home could be completed.

“Thankfully I did not spend much money. I had only given Rs 8,000 to my agent from Darjeeling who disappeared. The agent in Dubai, however, had been demanding Rs 2.5 lakh from me,” said Sunita.

The other girls who went with her, Sunita claimed, had also lost money, “anything between Rs 40,000 and Rs 54,000”.

MARG team members said that since 2015, they have come across more than 50 cases similar to Sunita’s.

“One time, an agent had duped 20-odd youths with a promise to take them to Poland. Most (people who seek overseas jobs) are duped as they don’t check the basics,” said Chettri.