50 labourers in dire straits as wages, housing denied

Manama : Around 50 workers of a contracting company sought help from the Indian Embassy yesterday after they were allegedly forced out of their accommodation.

The workers, who visited the open house on the embassy premises in Adliya yesterday morning, also claimed that they had not received two months’ wages. 

“We are trapped here, we haven’t received our salaries. They have also refused to arrange air tickets for us to return home,” said Manku, one of the workers. He added that they finally got their passports back after the embassy intervened.

The expat workers revealed that they came to the Kingdom after a recruitment company in India arranged jobs here. 

“We desperately need help in getting our salaries as we do not have any money with us. We do not want to work here anymore and just want to go back to India. The Manager in our company treated us badly and even threatened us from time to time. He said that if we did not leave, he would beat us,” Manku said.

“We had no choice, but to leave the place, though we have nowhere else to go. We don’t even have any money to buy food,” he added. 

“I regret coming to Bahrain, this is not how I imagined that it would be. If I knew this is what we were getting into, I would not have come here,” another worker said.

In a separate case, a woman sought help from the embassy as her child did not have a CPR card. “My husband was arrested and he is still in jail, he was the breadwinner of the family. I gave birth after he went to prison. My child does not have a CPR card, so we cannot even take him to a hospital since he doesn’t have one,” she said.

The session was headed by Indian Ambassador Alok Kumar Sinha. First Secretary Meera Sisodia and other embassy officials were also present.