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JAIPUR: For about a month now, eighty-two wage-earners from the country including 33 from Rajasthan are stranded in Saudi Arabia. A travel and placement company from Jaipur had sent them to Saudi Arabia, where they were made to work as labourers for a few months and then left stranded in Riyadh. It is alleged that an India-based labour supplier conned these labourers and disappeared with their passports and other documents.
Speaking to TOI on phone, a labourer, Gulzar, from Tonk district, broke down and pleaded that he and other labourers be rescued. He said they are being forced to live in makeshift rooms and starved every alternate day.
Prem Bhandari, media chairman of Rajasthan Association of North America's (RANA), an association of Rajasthanis living in New York, said that a plea has been forwarded to chief minister Ashok Gehlot requesting him to lodge an FIR against the Jaipur-based agent who had sent these labourers to Saudi Arabia. Bhandari said that he has also requested foreign minister Salman Khurshid to intervene.
Bhandari said that while 33 labourers are from Rajasthan, most of others are from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
"A Jaipur-based agent Kamal Soni had sent these people from Jaipur and Mumbai airports to Saudi Arabia on fake visa documents," Bhandari said. "Each of these labourers had paid Rs 1 lakh to the agent and promised a salary of Rs 21,000 per month. They were handed over to a labour supplier identified as Jai Kumar from Kerala. The labourers were shocked to find that the company for which they worked did not even exist," said Bhandari.
Gulzar said, "Our passports were taken away from us and we were not given iqama (a work and residency permit). The government there launched a campaign to check iqama when Jai Kumar got scared and hid us from police for a few days. He then took us to Riyadh on the pretext that we were being shifted there. He disappeared after that."
"We cry most of the time feeling scared. Please save us," pleaded Gulzar.
Add commissioner of police, crime, Giriraj Meena said that they have received the complaint and have are investigating it. "If the allegations are found true, strict action will be taken against fraudsters," said Meena.
82 Indians stranded in Saudi Arabia - The Times of India
Speaking to TOI on phone, a labourer, Gulzar, from Tonk district, broke down and pleaded that he and other labourers be rescued. He said they are being forced to live in makeshift rooms and starved every alternate day.
Prem Bhandari, media chairman of Rajasthan Association of North America's (RANA), an association of Rajasthanis living in New York, said that a plea has been forwarded to chief minister Ashok Gehlot requesting him to lodge an FIR against the Jaipur-based agent who had sent these labourers to Saudi Arabia. Bhandari said that he has also requested foreign minister Salman Khurshid to intervene.
Bhandari said that while 33 labourers are from Rajasthan, most of others are from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
"A Jaipur-based agent Kamal Soni had sent these people from Jaipur and Mumbai airports to Saudi Arabia on fake visa documents," Bhandari said. "Each of these labourers had paid Rs 1 lakh to the agent and promised a salary of Rs 21,000 per month. They were handed over to a labour supplier identified as Jai Kumar from Kerala. The labourers were shocked to find that the company for which they worked did not even exist," said Bhandari.
Gulzar said, "Our passports were taken away from us and we were not given iqama (a work and residency permit). The government there launched a campaign to check iqama when Jai Kumar got scared and hid us from police for a few days. He then took us to Riyadh on the pretext that we were being shifted there. He disappeared after that."
"We cry most of the time feeling scared. Please save us," pleaded Gulzar.
Add commissioner of police, crime, Giriraj Meena said that they have received the complaint and have are investigating it. "If the allegations are found true, strict action will be taken against fraudsters," said Meena.
82 Indians stranded in Saudi Arabia - The Times of India
