HOSHIARPUR – As many as 150 youths, including 25 from Punjab, are stuck in Eastern province capital city Dammam of Saudi Arabia after their company abandoned them due to closure of construction work on the site they were working at.
They are suffering in extreme cold conditions and are on the verge of starvation as the company they were working for had not paid them for months. Besides, the company officials have kept their passports and demanding 1,500 riyals for returning the same. They also asked them to show their return tickets.
The family of one of them, Punit Mehan of nearby Baghpur village, informed the Ministry of External Affairs a month ago about the sufferings of the youth stuck there by writing a letter to Union Minister Sushma Swaraj.
His brother had also lodged a complaint on online grievance portal “Madad” for NRIs, but to no avail.
Now, the family has again written to Swaraj and PM Narendra Modi to intervene in the matter.
Mehan had gone to Saudi Arabia to work as a diesel mechanic in a construction company, “Saad Sahmi Al Hajri”, at Dammam three-and-a-half years ago.
His brother Rajat Mehan said Punit had come home as his father had expired and retuned to Dammam in July last. At that time his three-month salary was pending and the company had then sent him home with a return ticket.
About four months ago, Punit told them that company officials had not paid him. Following some dispute with the Saudi government, the company closed the work.
The company allegedly took passports of the foreign workers, including 150 Indians, and left them at the construction site.
“Neither the company is giving them work, nor allowing them to return,” he said.
Punit told the family that they barely had any money and were passing days by eating once a day or even less.
Rajat said, “My brother told me that they had contacted the Indian Embassy and they had appointed a person, Zakir Hussain, to sign a settlement but in vain. The youths also filed a case in the labour court, but they were yet to get any relief.”
