Duped by contractual promises, a group of 17 Indian workers, who arrived in the Kingdom barely two months ago, are desperate to go back home. While in India the recruiting agents promised the workers a basic monthly salary of SR800, free food and accommodation and overtime for extra work. The workers were also told that they would be assigned a cleaning job inside hospitals, school buildings or mosques in the city of Jeddah. However, upon arrival in Saudi Arabia on April 26, the workers were taken to Qunfudah, some 350 km from Jeddah, and the Saudi company deployed them for street cleaning work. Although shocked over the breach of contractual promises, the unskilled Indians accepted the conditions and started working quietly. But the real shock came when the management of the company they were recruited for reduced their basic monthly salary to SR600. The company also told the employees that the fee for their Iqama (residence permit) would be deducted from their salary every month. After working for more than a month and receiving no salary, the Indians, who paid Rs100,000 (SR8,000) as a visa fee to the Indian recruitment agencies, decided to stop work in protest against the false promises that were made to them when they signed their employment contracts. Ramesh, one of the members of the group speaking over the phone from Abha, said the workers were sent to Saudi Arabia on false promises and on the pretext of receiving benefits including free food and accommodation, free medical care, no Iqama fee deductions from their salary and free air ticket during every vacation. On the contrary, upon their arrival, the Saudi company allegedly the workers to sign a new employment contract, which they claim made no mention of these benefits. “We have been trapped by false promises just because we are uneducated. But we cannot manage to save money if we are underpaid,” Ramesh said referring to the reduced salary of SR600 a month. The workers have not been getting enough to eat, as the company has paid them only SR200 – SR100 on two different occasions – since their arrival in the Kingdom. Ramesh said that he and others in the group were living on bread and water. Angered by the strike, the company management locked the workers in a room and cut off the electricity for several hours in the hot summer weather, Ramesh alleged. As the Indians were reluctant to continue working, he said they were taken to Abha with no word about what will happen to them in the future. He said the workers were frustrated, as their dream of making some money in Saudi Arabia was shattered. The workers, already depressed, even spoke with the recruiting agent in India only to receive more false promises, the aggrieved worker added. “We have expressed our intention to the company's management that we only want to go back home and nothing else,” he said. However, Abdurrahman, a member of the Qunfudah Pravasi Association, said mediation could be conducted between the company and the workers in the presence of an Indian Embassy official which might result in the Indians resuming their work. It would be in the best interest of both the company and the workers if the Indians resumed working after, of course, the basic salary and other benefits are negotiated, he said. He added that his association was providing food to the destitute workers. He said he spoke over telephone with the Indian recruiting agents, who urged him to persuade the workers to resume their work duties, saying that everything would be resolved in the due course of time. Abdurrahman said the Indian recruiting agents also informed him that 80 more Indians have been recruited and are on their way to work in Saudi Arabia. “I objected and told the Indian recruiters in clear terms that no Indians could work if they are sent to work on the basis of false promises and inflated salaries,” Abdurrahman said. Ramesh said the workers in his group want to go back home for a simple reason that “if we continue working on the reduced basic salary and no benefits, which are not the conditions that we agreed to, we will never be able to save any money for our family back home. “Even if I stay in Saudi Arabia for another 10 years, I will not be able to recover the amount of money I paid to the recruiting agent in India, let alone save some money for my family,” he said. The Federation of Kerala Associations in Saudi Arabia (FOKASA), a Riyadh-based social organization, dispatched a letter to the Indian Embassy and the Consulate General of India in Jeddah requesting their intervention and asking them to resolve the issue immediately. FOKASA also dispatched a letter to the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, External Affairs Ministry, Protector of Emigrants, Government of India, Chief Minister and Minister for NORKA, Government of Kerala, as the group of workers reside in that state and NRI Cell, Kerala Police urging them to force the concerned recruiting agents to implement the contractual obligations arrived at between them and the workers, and to establish contact with the concerned Saudi company to provide sustenance, medical aid and proper accommodation. FOKASA further urged the Indian recruiting company to ensure that the Saudi company gives the employees what was agreed upon in India and failing which, the workers should be sent back to India. Upon contacting the Saudi company employing the 17 Indian workers for the purposes of compiling this report, a company official refused to make any comment about the workers and their claims of false contractual promises.
