Chennai/UAE: Several Indian workers stranded in United Arab Emirates have appealed the Indian government through video clips for immediate repatriation and financial assistance.
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As many as 15 workers from Tamil Nadu among those at a camp for migrant workers have urged the government to help them. They said, “Please help us reunite with our families. Our employment contract, visas, labour card and the resident identity card has expired, but the sponsor has not renewed them, forcing employees to work without wages.”

P Chitra, the wife of one of the men who made the appeal, said, “I last spoke to my husband a month back. He said he hadn’t been paid for nine months and was finding it difficult to buy food. Since then I haven’t heard from him.”

In the video, the workers said that there were nearly 100 workers stuck with no money or documents to get back home. They have not been paid wages since November 2015. They also have made a written appeal to the government. Reportedly, each migrant paid up to Rs 2 lakhs to an agent to get a job overseas. The complaint lists the names of the agents and demands action against them, besides compensation.

Meanwhile, an official in the Foreign Ministry, who declined to be named, said, “We received their complaint a few days back and sent it to our mission in Abu Dhabi asking for immediate repatriation, ensuring the companies they were working pay their salaries.”

Josephine Valarmathi of the non-profit National Domestic Workers’ Movement, based in Chennai, said, “The number of workers being trafficked to the Gulf from India was rising. But no action was being taken against the agents sending them with false promises and no proper documentation. It’s time, the government investigated how workers are sent through these agencies without proper documentation” she said.