Her child was a little over a year old when Maya, a young woman from Nepal, decided to go to Saudi Arabia to work as a maid. She was assured three square meals a day and some money to send back home. Months later, as her child celebrated her second birthday, a helpless Maya was behind the locked bars of the Chennai Central Prison, despite securing bail.

Arrested for trying to go abroad using a fake passport, Maya, along with a few other women from Nepal, are lodged in the women’s wing of Puzhal prison on the outskirts of the city. They have been awarded bail, but continue to languish in prison as there is no one to pay the surety amount of Rs 25,000.

“We didn’t have passports. But the agent said that was the case with all poor people who want to work abroad,” she said. But in October last, while attempting to fly out of Chennai airport, Maya was caught by the immigration authorities.

“Most of these cases are not very serious. In some, the person can secure release merely by appointing a good lawyer. But those from Third World countries are not rich enough to pay the bail amount or to fly back. Their governments will have to help them out, which does not happen often,” said V Kannadasan, special public prosecutor, human rights cases, Madras High Court.

Aluoch Vanebo Edward, a 26-year-old Kenyan student who is among the latest admissions to the prison, is still bewildered. He was detained after a drunken brawl with a group of locals who made fun of him. Edward’s papers showed that his visa period was over, leading to his imprisonment. “Will you tell my parents to get me out of here?” he asked hopefully, writing down their phone numbers.

... contd.