Berhampur/Beguniapada: At least 12 Oriyas, stranded in Saudi Arabia for a month, have been pleading for their release, reports said. Their employer has seized their passports and reportedly demanded Rs 2 lakh each to release them. The 12 are among 26 labourers who have been kept hostage by the foreign company.
The matter came to the fore after the workers contacted their relatives and friends via social media.
According to sources, 12 labourers from Orissa, 12 from Andhra Pradesh and four from Telangana went to Saudi through an agency five months back.
They were deployed with a company upon their arrival in Saudi. Although the employers behaved well initially, things began to change with every passing month. The labourers were forced to work for 16 hours without salaries and were given low quality food. The employers seized their passports after the labourers expressed their displeasure over the quality of food and their salaries.
The employers inflicted mental and physical torture on them. Failing to bear torture, the workers left the company and approached the Indian High Commissioner’s office pleading for their rescue.
However, no steps were taken in this regard. Since then, the workers are wandering from one place to place seeking shelter in public. They were provided food by fellow labourers from India.
On learning their plight, the administration from both Telangana and Andhra extended their helping hands to rescue the labourers and promised to rescue them soon. However, no steps have been taken yet to rescue the Oriya labourers.
The labourers were identified as Gobind Dakua of Tumbhuda villae, Prahalad Muduli and Lochan Behera of Khallikote Kanheipur village, Sudam Charan Sahu of Sorada, Bruhaspati Madi and Harikrishna of Jayantipur, Gopal Silbhalash and Basudev Silbhalash of Golabandhar, Umashankar Sahu of Badasing, Ganesh Patra of Chamakhandi and Podini Taresu of Berhampur. PNN