Sunday, July 22, 2012

A suicide in Bahrain highlights Indian workers' nightmare...

More than 100 Indians stuck in Bahrain, most of them from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, may soon be able to return home. Some have not seen their families in six years. Their employer, a company named Nass Contracting which handles construction in Bahrain, had obtained a court order that banned these workers from travelling outside Bahrain. The company had described the Indian employees as "run-away workers" because they were "absconding from work without notice." Now, the company says it will drop all cases against these employees as "a matter of a good-will gesture."

The victory for the workers comes after stark tragedy. In June, Pasupathi Mariappan, a poor blacksmith who worked with Nass Contracting, hanged himself at a public park in Bahrain after he was allegedly legally prohibited from flying home.

He was reportedly the 24th immigrant Indian worker to kill himself this year in Bahrain, according to Mr Santosh, an official in the Indian embassy there.

 Pasupathi's family says he told them that "workers were not paid what was promised and they were left with nothing to send home". Like many of his colleagues, Pasupathi had been recruited by an employment agency that provides cheap blue-collar labour to the Middle East. Full story...

Related posts:
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  2. Boss in Dubai witholds his passport, so his sister in Kerala weds his bride...
  3. Thousands of Indians in prisons world-wide, especially in Middle East...
  4. Indian workers stranded in Jeddah, living under a bridge...
  5. One Indian expat commits suicide every three days in the UAE...
  6. Lost in the Gulf: India's missing migrants...
  7. The slave workers of Dubai...
  8. A Nepali woman's ordeal in Saudi Arabia...
  9. Human Rights Watch comdemns maid abuse in Middle East...

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