After an intense 22-year search, Hamida Banu, an Indian woman, was finally found alive after falling victim to human trafficking in Pakistan. This story began when she accepted a job offer in Dubai, which turned out to be a scam. Without documentation or the ability to return to India, she got trapped in a trafficking network in Pakistan.
The reunion with her family became possible thanks to a YouTube video in which Waliullah Maroof, a Pakistani activist, interviewed Hamida. The video reached Indian journalist Khalfan Shaikh, who shared it on his platform, enabling Hamida's grandson to recognize his grandmother and connect with her family after so many years.
After the video went viral, an emotional video call was organized that allowed Hamida's daughters, Yasmin and Parveen, to reunite with their mother. In the emotional meeting, Hamida's daughters asked her where she had been all those years, to which she replied that it was not her choice and that she had no other options.
Although Hamida's identity had to be confirmed through various document tests, after two months, she was finally able to return to India on December 16 by crossing the Attari-Wagah border. There, her family, who had traveled from Mumbai to receive her, was waiting. During her absence, Hamida had been in Pakistan, where she was kidnapped by a trafficking network and experienced a series of events that separated her from her loved ones.
Her story, marked by tragedy and struggle, finally had a happy ending with her return home. Hamida had left her four children behind to seek work in the United Arab Emirates but ended up being a victim of human trafficking, living an odyssey that culminated in her reunion with her family after more than two decades of separation.
