JAIPUR: Some of the 24 labourers stuck in Saudi Arabia for the past several months are stressed to the extent that they have threatened to commit suicide if they were not rescued by the authorities. They said that it’d become impossible for them to survive the inhuman condition in which they were forced to live.TOI had reported about the plight of these men earlier this month. The labourers, eight of them from Rajasthan, are stranded in Saudi Arabia for the past several months as the company where they are working is not providing them with salary and their passports have also been seized. If some social activists had not given them support and hope, they would have died by now.The labourers are under stress because two of them have lost their close family members back home. While Mohindra from Punjab who is stuck in Saudi Arabia lost his parents in December, the father of another labourer Jennuddin belonging to Bihar also died recently. In both the cases, the parents’ health deteriorated because of the worry over their sons’ safety in Saudi Arabia.“Jennuddin’s father kept asking him when he would return over phone until he breathed his last. The worry about his son’s safety took his life,” one of the labourers told TOI over phone.He said that they were hiding from the police and forced to live in inhuman conditions because they visas had expired and they couldn’t roam freely because they didn’t have Iqama, a residency permit issued to those expatriates who arrive in Saudi Arabia on an employment visa.“One of the laburers had a cardiac arrest and because we didn’t have Iqama, we could not hospitalize him. His condition is serious,” said the labourer.He added that they are under so much stress that ending their lives seemed the only way out.New York-based social activist Prem Bhandari who is helping these labourers said that he has written to the Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia and officials had promised to help. Besides, he has also written a letter to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj explaining the plight of these labourers.Some of these labourers told TOI over phone that a placement agency based in Jaipur's Sansar Chand Road had sent them to Saudi Arabia through a Mumbai-based placement company, promising a lucrative job. As soon as they reached Saudi Arabia's Al-Thuqbah, their passports were seized. They are being kept hostage and had to go without food for days.Bhandari said that the placement agency kept the victims in Mumbai for a couple of months and took nearly 1 lakh from each of them. The agency promised to get them a job in a very reputed company and showed them a contract which said that they would be employed with the company for three years."The contract said that they would be able to return to India each year. However when these laborers landed in Saudi Arabia, they were shocked to find that their visa would expire in just three months. A horrifying ordeal ensued. After the visa expired, the company got the visa extended for three more months. After nine months, they didn't have visas. So now they are completely stranded. The company didn't even pay them and kept them hostage," said Bhandari.Bhandari said that the problem of fraudulent placement agencies is getting serious in Rajasthan. Last year, Bhandari had helped 82 labourers who were stranded in Saudi Arabia return to India after some of these labourers threatened to commit suicide.He added that Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje was very sensitive about such matters and he was sure she would initiate action against these touts.