Jalandhar: 22-year-old youth stuck in Morocco after promise for Spain returns after 10 months

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, April 4

A 22-year-old youth, Arshdeep Singh, stuck in Morocco for the last 10 months, has returned home due to efforts of Rajya Sabha member Balbir Singh Seechewal.

Nirmal Singh, a resident of Muridwal, had collected Rs 13 lakh from relatives and other relatives to send his Class XII pass son Arshdeep to Spain and gave it to a travel agent living in Pammana village. Arshdeep said he had boarded a flight from Jaipur to Spain in June 2023, but the travel agent trapped him by taking him to Morocco. He said whatever money he had was spent on hotel rent and food. He used to demand

Rs 15,000 to 20,000 every week from home to stay in a hotel where he lived. He said that he kept on insisting upon the travel agent everyday to send them to Spain.

Arshdeep said, "It became difficult for me to stay in Morocco and the hotel expenses for 10 months came to around Rs 7 lakh. There were other boys along with me who contacted Seechewal through Facebook and told him the entire story. My father Nirmal Singh along with other prominent people of the village met Seechewal on March 19 at Nirmal Kutiya Sultanpur Lodhi. The MP immediately wrote a letter to the Ministry of External Affairs and informed them about the entire situation. The Indian Embassy in Morocco contacted me and ensured my return home and I reached home safely on March 28."

The victim's family thanked Seechewal and said that due to his efforts 10 more Punjabis also managed to return. Arshdeep claimed that the number of Indian youth in the trap of travel agents who want to go to Spain was around 500. On this occasion, Seechewal compared travel agents to extortionists. He said that such travel agents are taking advantage of the helplessness of the poor and deceiving the youth. Referring to Muridwal resident Nirmal Singh, he said that he was so poor that despite being a mason, he could not even build a bathroom in his house. He appealed to the youth of Punjab to not to fall in the trap of agents

Arshdeep's father Nirmal Singh told that his three daughters are going to get married. All three are elder than Arshdeep. He had taken the loan with a hope to tide over poverty, to get his daughters married and build a good house for himself. But the travel agent's fraud dashed their dreams and left the victim's family with a debt of Rs 20 lakh. He appealed to the Punjab government to take strict action against the travel agents of the state and get all their money returned so that they can repay the debt they have incurred.

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