Bangladeshi housemaid Sumi returns home from Saudi Arabia

Sumi Akter -- a housemaid whose video appealing for help after alleged torture in Saudi Arabia went viral on social media -- has returned home.

She arrived in Shahjalal International Airport at 7am on Friday in an Air Arabia flight, said an officer of Expatriate Welfare Desk at the airport.

Wage Earners Welfare Board Director Zahirul Islam received her at the airport. Her husband Nurul Islam and their children were also there.

She was later taken to Panchagarh where she will be reunited with her parents, he told bdnews24.com.

Sumi made international headlines earlier this month when she alleged in a video on social media that she was being tortured after being “lured into Saudi Arabia with a promise of a good job”.

Police later took her to the Consulate General of Bangladesh in Jeddah from her employer’s home, but the employer refused to sign off on her “final exit” before recouping the 22,000 riyal he paid for her.

He eventually allowed her to leave after a labour court rejected his plea for the repayment of the “dues”.