Write Comment     |     E-Mail To a Friend     |     Facebook     |     Twitter     |     Print

VARANASI: Postmortem of a labourer from Ghazipur who had died mysteriously in Saudi Arabia 10 months back has given a dramatic turn to the case as all vital organs have been found missing. Local politicians have urged the President, prime minister, foreign minister and the NHRC to take note of the episode.

"Ramdin Rajbhar of Harsarpur village under Dullahpur police station in Ghazipur district had gone to Saudi Arabia in 2013 while his wife Sheela and three children stayed back. On failing to get a good job, Ramdin started working in Al Khafji town as a labourer. After seven months he contacted his wife and other family members over phone for the last time on April 30, 2014 and told them that his employer was going to kill him," said Ghazipur zila panchayat member Brijbhushan Dubey who is pursuing the case.

"The official communication made through Indian embassy after Ramdin’s death showed the cause of death as hanging," Dubey said.Ramdin’s body was landed in India in February and under public pressure, was sent to BHU where a three-member team of doctors conducted an autopsy.The story took a dramatic turn when BHU sent its report to Ghazipur police a week back.

The report said that pericardium, spleen, kidney and some others vital organs were missing from the body. After this, Dubey sought legal opinion on behalf of Sheela and a fresh correspondence was started with the offices of the President, PM, foreign minister, CM and NHRC.

Labourers struck in Saudi Arabia threaten to end their life if not rescued by authorities

JAIPUR: Some of the 24 labourers stuck in Saudi Arabia for the past several months are stressed to the extent that they have threatened to commit suicide if they were not rescued by the authorities. They said that it’d become impossible for them to survive the inhuman condition in which they were forced to live.

TOI had reported about the plight of these men earlier this month. The labourers, eight of them from Rajasthan, are stranded in Saudi Arabia for the past several months as the company where they are working is not providing them with salary and their passports have also been seized. If some social activists had not given them support and hope, they would have died by now.

The labourers are under stress because two of them have lost their close family members back home. While Mohindra from Punjab who is stuck in Saudi Arabia lost his parents in December, the father of another labourer Jennuddin belonging to Bihar also died recently. In both the cases, the parents’ health deteriorated because of the worry over their sons’ safety in Saudi Arabia.

"Jennuddin’s father kept asking him when he would return over phone until he breathed his last. The worry about his son’s safety took his life," one of the labourers told TOI over phone.

He said that they were hiding from the police and forced to live in inhuman conditions because they visas had expired and they couldn’t roam freely because they didn’t have Iqama, a residency permit issued to those expatriates who arrive in Saudi Arabia on an employment visa.

"One of the laburers had a cardiac arrest and because we didn’t have Iqama, we could not hospitalize him. His condition is serious," said the labourer.

He added that they are under so much stress that ending their lives seemed the only way out.

New York-based social activist Prem Bhandari who is helping these labourers said that he has written to the Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia and officials had promised to help. Besides, he has also written a letter to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj explaining the plight of these labourers.

Some of these labourers told TOI over phone that a placement agency based in Jaipur’s Sansar Chand Road had sent them to Saudi Arabia through a Mumbai-based placement company, promising a lucrative job. As soon as they reached Saudi Arabia’s Al-Thuqbah, their passports were seized. They are being kept hostage and had to go without food for days.

Bhandari said that the placement agency kept the victims in Mumbai for a couple of months and took nearly 1 lakh from each of them. The agency promised to get them a job in a very reputed company and showed them a contract which said that they would be employed with the company for three years.

"The contract said that they would be able to return to India each year. However when these laborers landed in Saudi Arabia, they were shocked to find that their visa would expire in just three months. A horrifying ordeal ensued. After the visa expired, the company got the visa extended for three more months. After nine months, they didn’t have visas. So now they are completely stranded. The company didn’t even pay them and kept them hostage," said Bhandari.

Bhandari said that the problem of fraudulent placement agencies is getting serious in Rajasthan. Last year, Bhandari had helped 82 labourers who were stranded in Saudi Arabia return to India after some of these labourers threatened to commit suicide.

He added that Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje was very sensitive about such matters and he was sure she would initiate action against these touts.

Bonded labour rescued from Saudi Arabia, still ordeal doesn’t end

AMRITSAR: Nightmare of a 29-year-old Punjabi driver, who was forced to work as a bonded labour in Saudi Arabia, has ended and he has returned home.
 
Resident of Bhagian village near Tanda in Hoshiarpur district, Jaswant Singh told TOI on Sunday that some international NGOs had taken up his case and managed to arrange emergency travel documents, which enabled him to return home. However, this is not the end to his predicaments as he is now caught deep into debt trap. While the jobless driver has no money unable to return the money he borrowed to materialize his foreign dream, he has additional burden of a loan which he borrowed to survive in Saudi Arabia.
 
Jaswant Singh had gone to Kuwait on May 30, but instead of the driver’s job, he was sent to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and forced to work as a camel herder. The strenuous work of feeding camels and taking them to pastures in the desert left him severely ill.
 
TOI had earlier, on September 20, carried his story, following which the issue of his release was taken up at various levels. "It is my second life. I will never ever go back to the Gulf," he said.
 
Jaswant had struck a deal for Rs 75,000 with a local travel agent to get him driver’s job in Kuwait and had also paid Rs 50,000 advance after borrowing from friends and relatives. "In Saudi Arabia, I had to borrow another Rs 60,000 to meet my medical and food expenses," he said.
 
He said that the travel agent and his son in Kuwait, who had sent him to a village near Riyadh, had denied receiving any money from him.
 
Jaswant is now looking for a job to make a living to repay his loans. "I have suffered a lot. Still, I am lucky that I returned. But there are several like me and I want the government to take strict action against these scrupulous travel agents, who put life of young boys in danger for money," he said.