Dubai: A group of 49 Indian workers, who were abandoned by the employer of two carpentry firms in Dubai for several months, have been repatriated after authorities helped them secure their passports and security deposits from the company.
The Indian Consulate in Dubai announced that the workers were repatriated in batches. “Consulate is #HappyToAssist more than 45 Indian labourers who were abandoned by their employers. CGI provided them with rations for more than 3 months & helped to retrieve their passports from their employer. The labourers returned in batches to India with the support of Consulate,” the mission said in a tweet.
Employer unreachable
When contacted, the consulate revealed that the workers, 49 in total, had been in dire straits after the companies were shut and the Indian employer went unreachable. Neeraj Agrawal, consul for Press, Information and Culture said the workers had reached out for help in July.
“They had not been paid for about six months and they reached out to the consulate for help to return home.”
He said the mission provided food supplies to the workers since July. However, the workers’ passports were still under the custody of the companies. Though the owner was not reachable, the consulate said the PROs of the firms were contacted and the workers’ passports and security deposits [Dh3,000 each] were taken with the support of Dubai Police and Al Adheed Centre of Dubai Courts which provides services related to labour disputes.
Following this, the workers, majority of whom are from Uttar Pradesh, flew home in three batches. “The final group left to Lucknow on October 10,” the official said. Since the workers’ visas were valid, they did not face any overstay fines. They left without cancelling the visas because the sponsor wasn’t available, he added.
