About 13 workers confined in Dubai after being promised lucrative jobs
BALURGHAT: Family members of the 13 workers of South Dinajpur’s Gangarampur who are in Dubai after being promised lucrative jobs, are spending sleepless nights. The worried family members have already appealed to the government to ensure their return to the country.
About 13 people had left for Dubai from South Dinajpur on December 1 after being assured of jobs in the Information Technology sector by an employment agency. However, they were taken to Dubai and made to work as construction labourers.
A local agency has been accused of locking them up in a room as they started protesting about the false promise.
The houses of the detained workers are in Ward 15 of Gangarampur Municipality. The workers have informed their families about their sorry plight through a video.
The families claimed that the 13 job aspirants had gone to Dubai on promises of a salary of Rs 2.5 lakh per month. On reaching there on December 6, they were forced to work as labourers. Later, when they protested and wanted to return, they allegedly received death threats. Besides, they were ordered to deposit Rs 1 lakh per person if they wanted to return home.
In the video message, the workers have said that they have been trapped and confined in a small room. The Dubai based-construction company is refusing to provide them food, medicines or other expenses there. No agent in Dubai or South Dinajpur has been contacting them since they were locked up in that room for two days. “We are having very miserable days. There is no option but to die if not return to the country quickly,” in the video message, the workers said.
Lakshmi Sarkar, one of the family members, said: “My son had recently gone to Dubai through an agent of Malda with the promise of a computer job. Unfortunately, he was engaged there as a labourer. I am worried about getting my son back. My son sent a video message from there willing to return home. The government should do something immediately, otherwise they will all die.”
