Saeed Haider Saudi Gazette AL-KHOBAR — Cramped in a dingy room in Al-Khobar's Bayuoni area are 24 Indian workers who are prisoners of their dreams and ambitions which have turned into their worst nightmares. Like hundreds of thousands of expatriates in the Kingdom, these 24 workers also arrived in the Kingdom to fulfill their dreams and aspirations of their family members. But they did not realize that they were duped by a local recruiting agency. The entire chain of event smells nothing but of fraud on part of recruiting agency. When Saudi Gazette contacted the representative of the hiring company, he said the company was working fast to procure exit for these 24 workers and hoped that within seven days they will succeed in “deporting them with full clearance of their dues”. The company is a sub contractor in the project. The representative blamed non-payment of their bills by main contractor as root cause of the problem. He did not have any answer to the illegal stay of these workers and the fine. He also did not have answers to the allegation that they were hand in glove in cheating these workers. He, however, said that they had made it very clear to the agents that the visas were not employment visas but work visit visa which allows a stay of 90 days only. The workers claim that they had paid 100,000 Indian rupees (SR6,000) to the agent. A frustrated Mohammad of Kolkata said that life was a living hell for him here and also for his family back home who are threatened every day by those from whom he borrowed money to pay to the agent. These workers are mainly from Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Punjab, Chandigarh and West Bengal. The travel agent promised them that they were going on work visa with one year renewable contract. However, their visa expired three months after their arrival in Saudi Arabia. Workers allege that they were paid only for five months and nothing after that. They were confined to their camp and forced to work on site. After nine months they were shifted to Dammam. In mid-2014 they were shifted to Al-Khobar. The workers allege that the company abandoned them with no food or money. It was only after the intervention of the Indian Embassy and some social activists that the company agreed to pay for their food. These workers are physically and psychologically shattered. Some of them have tragic stories from back home. Mohinder Singh from Chandigarh lost his both mother and father and says that the only dream he has now is to go back home. Another worker from Bihar, Srinivas also lost his father and is absolutely distraught. Every worker has a tragic story and a shattered dream.
