JAIPUR: Seventy-two Indian labourers, some of them from Rajasthan, who are returning home from Saudi Arabia told TOI over the phone about how those labourers, who fall victim to the trap laid by placement agencies across the country, are forced to live in inhuman conditions in Saudi Arabia prisons. The labourers are arrested for failing to present an iqama, a residency permit issued to those expatriates who go there on an employment visa.

These labourers, who were lodged in a prison near Riyadh and will reach New Delhi on Sunday since they got 'emergency travel documents', said on Saturday that labourers have to go through horrifying ordeals after they are duped by placement agencies. More than 400 labourers are still stuck in the same jail and some of them have been there for the last couple of years. The inmates are allowed to use mobile phones at exorbitant charges. Using these phones, the labourers have sent photographs to social activists to show how they are being kept like animals and have appealed for the Indian government to rescue them.

Hukum Singh, a labourer from Jodhpur who got an exit visa and will soon reach India said he had gone through hell. "I was duped by a placement agency's agents. I had sold some jewellery to pay them the commission for getting me a job in Saudi Arabia. When I reached there I found that I had been sent on a tourist visa. A company there employed me illegally. But when I and other labourers demanded salary, we were left stranded. The police then arrested us because we didn't have iqama," said Singh.

Bajrang Lal, a labourer from Nagaur's Panchala Siddha village, who is still lodged in the prison said sometimes there is not enough space to sit, let alone sleep. All the labourers are being kept like animals.

As per the labourers, 200-250 labourers are kept in each barrack. They are given just one blanket. They are given only khabus and daal. If they need any additional item of their choice, they need to pay 25 riyal (nearly Rs 410). But because they don't have any money, they are forced to have the same food every day. To use mobile phones they need to pay 5 riyal (nearly Rs 82) to charge its battery. Recharge coupons are sold at even more exorbitant prices. Also, there are only seven toilets for each barrack, so a prisoner has to wait almost 2-3 hours in the morning. They are forced to drink the same water they use to bathe since water bottles are being sold at high rates.

New York-based social activist Prem Bhandari said the plight of these labourers came to light when Hukum Singh called him from the jail. He added that he was in touch with some officials at the Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia. They sent three volunteers to the prison to take stock of the situation.

Bhandari said majority of these prsioners were sent by Indian agents to Saudi Arabia on tourist visas and when they were employed by companies there illegally, their passports were seized and they were not paid salaries. When the labourers protested, the company sacked them leaving them stranded in a foreign land. They have now been arrested by the police for not having iqama.

Bhandari met Counsul General of India in New York Dnyaneshwar M Mulay recently and requested him to convey the plight of these labourers to the Prime Minister's Office so that these labourers could be rescued.

