Two Indian workers stuck in the UAE with no job, salary and food were repatriated home, thanks to the Indian Consulate in Dubai.
The workers named Jayeed Hussain and Mohammad Firoz Ansari, both belonging to the state of Bihar in India left for home on Saturday, December 7. They took the Air Arabia flight to New Delhi from where they took a connecting flight to Patna, their home-town.
In an interview to Gulf News, Jitender Singh Negi, Consul (Consular and Labour) at the Indian Consulate in Dubai said the workers contacted him in September, seeking help.
According to Negi, the workers were employed at Al Maidan Sanitary Contracting and AC units, a company based in Sharjah.
“They [Hussain and Ansari] had not been paid a salary for three months. The workers came to work in Sharjah in January this year. Their employer – said to be a Bangladeshi expat hired them through a recruitment agent in India. In September, the workers called the consulate to say they had not been paid a salary for three months and that they wanted to go home.”
“I advised them to visit the Consulate, so we could do a proper investigation and arrange their repatriation. They however did not visit the consulate until the month of October.”
Negi said, no sooner the men contacted the consulate for help, the officials sprung to action to find out about the employer as to why the workers were not paid a salary for three straight months.
“We called the company’s PRO, and HR department and found out that the employer was absconding. He also has the custody of workers’ passports. It is not immediately known as to what he has done with the passports. Maybe he has taken it with him or put it away somewhere.”
Once this was finalised, Negi said the consulate started the process of getting an outpass for workers so they could go home.
He added the employer could not be reached by the consulate.
“They were in a miserable state. No passport, no money, no salary and living off the generosity of other people for food.”
“The consulate issued Emergency Certificates for the two men. We had a copy of their old passports and we arranged to cancel the same from our end,” added Negi.
