Saudi Gazette report TABUK/JEDDAH — Fifty-five Indians stranded in Tabuk saw their three-year ordeal come to an end on Sunday when the last four workers in the group boarded their flight back home. Consul General Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, assisted by Labor Consul Prabhat K. Jain, took a personal interest in the case. Some 75 Indians arrived in the Kingdom three years ago to work for Al-Muthafail Company, a cleaning contractor for Tabuk municipality. Their dream of working abroad soon turned into a nightmare when their sponsor did not provide them with iqamas (residency permits), medical facilities and proper lodging. To add to their woes, after a year and a half, the company stopped paying them salaries. Nineteen of the workers who could not bear this agony ran away to eke out a living on their own. The rest of them kept working in the hope of getting legal exits on completion of their two-year contract with the company. The workers filed a case in the local labor court in April 2012 when the sponsor did not pay heed to repeated requests to repatriate them, Jain said. It was at this stage that they contacted the consulate, and moved by their plight Consul General Kidwai instructed the labor consul to take up their matter with concerned authorities and provide all possible help to the workers. To resolve the issue expeditiously, Kidwai also wrote to the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) and the Indian Embassy in Riyadh. After discussions with the Tabuk governorate, the modalities for repatriating them were worked out. Gulfam Ikramuddin, Karmveer Ratan, Masakur Ahmed Khan and Sajauddin Saddiq were the last of the stranded workers who flew to Delhi on Sunday. Jain said the Tabuk governor's office ordered the concerned departments to issue iqamas to the workers and grant them final exits. The fees and penalties that ran into thousands of riyals had to be borne by the sponsor. The latter, however, did not act on the order. He finally complied when the governorate moved to cancel his contract with the municipality. On the recommendation of Kidwai, the MOIA authorized cash relief to the workers. Additionally, the consulate arranged for their basic needs and provided them airfare. As the workers were awaiting their journey back home, a fire broke out in their camp but all of them escaped unhurt. The workers were then accommodated in a rented hall with the expenses sanctioned from the employees relief fund of the consulate. While expressing satisfaction over the successful resolution of the issue, Jain appreciated the sympathetic and humanitarian approach of the officers in the human rights wing of the Tabuk governorate “without whose unstinting support, the issue could not have been resolved.”
