KUALA LUMPUR: For 10 years, Mala Vello, from Port Dickson, Negri Sembilan, was trapped and forced into domestic servitude after following her Nepali partner back to his home country.
Her passport withheld, she was subjected to beatings, starvation and constant threats of gang rape if she tried to go to the police.
After finally mustering enough courage to leave her partner, she sought help from the authorities, only to be jailed for seven years for overstaying her visa.
Now 57, she has served two years of her sentence in a Nepali prison and only wants to return to Malaysia to see her seven children.
But under Nepali law, she isn't classified as a human trafficking victim, complicating her bid to come home.
During the New Straits Times' phone call with Mala, who is serving her sentence at the Central Jail in Sundhara, Kathmandu, she described her 10-year captivity as "hell on earth".
She said she met the Nepali man in 2012 when they worked at a hotel in Port Dickson. After falling in love, she agreed to follow him back to Nepal.
The man, she claimed, had persuaded her by saying that if she did not like it there, she could come back to Malaysia anytime.
Upon her arrival in Mirchaiya in Siraha, Nepal, on Jan 13, 2012, Mala obtained a 30-day tourist visa valid until Feb 13 that year.
After a traditional wedding ceremony, the couple lived with her father-in-law. Things were going well, until she began asking about her visa status. She claimed her husband kept her passport.
"Whenever I asked him about my passport, we would fight. He would hit me. This would happen over and over again.
"When I threatened to report him to the police, he would scare me, saying that he would rape me. He threatened to call other people to gang rape me."
Mala claimed that he forced her to work illegally in factories and farms.
"When I wasn't working, I was confined in the house. I wasn't allowed to talk to anyone or go anywhere. There was not enough food. He took all my money."
Mala, who is illiterate and does not speak Nepali, claimed her husband forced her to periodically call her daughter back in Malaysia to ask for money.
After 10 years of abuse, she decided to seek help. In February 2022, with the help of neighbours, she sought assistance from the Nepalese Migrant Unity Network in Lalitpur, Nepal, a local non-governmental organisation.
Following coordination with the NGO, she was directed to the Malaysian embassy in Kathmandu. The case was then referred to the Immigration Department of Nepal on March 9, 2022.
However, instead of being sent back to Malaysia, Mala was found guilty of overstaying under the Immigration Act and Rule of Nepal. She was fined the equivalent of RM88,500, which she did not have.
After failing to pay the fine, on March 7, 2022, she was sentenced to seven years' jail.
Mala's daughter, Uma Sangari Raby, 37, said she last saw her mother in 2012.
Mala, she claimed, told them she was going on a trip with her colleagues, but did not say where.
Uma said they were aware of her friendship with the Nepali man.
She said at the time, Mala had just sold the family home in Bahau and had some money.
"We lodged a police report when she didn't come back. We only learnt she had gone to Nepal when she called a few days later."
Subsequent calls, Uma said, were sporadic, sometimes once a month, sometimes every three months.
It was through these calls that Uma learnt of the abuse Mala was subjected to.
She said Mala would occasionally ask for money for various reasons, including for documentation purposes.
"One day, she just told us to stop sending her money because all the money was going into his (her husband's) pockets.
"She told us she was forced to work at a field and factory. She was undocumented, so it was quite a shady affair. She also couldn't speak Nepali, so she didn't know where to go or who to talk to. She was scared."
Uma said over the years, she had tried everything to bring her mother home, including approaching the Nepali embassy in Malaysia, the Foreign Ministry, NGOs and politicians.
"My mother is old. I just want her to come home."
Mala said despite being in jail, she felt freer than she ever did during her time with her husband.
"I'm no longer beaten and abused. However, all I want now is to go home.
"I know I was wrong to have been fooled by him to come here. I'm sorry. Please let me go home."