24 Indians are bonded labour in Iraq

Punjab: Twenty-four Indian men who had gone to Kuwait in the hope of finding a job and earning more money for their families were in for a rude shock.

Since they reached Kuwait and reported at the places where their travel agents had arranged jobs for them, they have been wishing they had stayed back in India.

These men have been given no pay or food and their passports have been confiscated by their employers.

They are now being forcibly sent to Iraq to work as bonded labourers.

The Indian travel agents, who took Rs 1.5 lakh from them, arranged their passports and helped them get jobs abroad have turned their backs on these men.

What's more, the travel agents now refuse to recognise them and refuse to help them.

They have predictably, denied all the charges and some have even denied taking money from these families and arranging for these men to go to Kuwait.

Others have said that they did send the men abroad but that they had done so legally and as per the demand for labourers in Kuwait.

They claimed that they had nothing to do with the confiscation of passports or the fact that these men have not being salaries or food.

However, the distraught wives of these men are demanding justice.

They claim that they had taken huge loans so that their husbands could go abroad, get better jobs and earn more money, but now all that they have is a string of creditors harassing them for money.

"I have no money, my family is in debt and I have three children to provide for. I don't know what to do," says Jagatram's wife Raj.

The trapped Indians, 19 from Punjab, two each from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and one from Maharashtra, have sent a fax to the Indian government appealing to the officials to help them out.

Meanwhile, the Lok Bhalai party, which received the fax, says it will take up the matter with the government. The party president, B S Ramoowalia, a former union minister, is in Delhi to talks with the Centre.

Working president, Lok Bhalai, Avtar Singh Mullanpuri, says, "Our president will also meet Sonia Gandhi and request her to look into the matter."

The Minister of state for External Affairs,E Ahmed, says the government is looking into the matter.

"We are talking with Kuwaiti authorities to get the workers back to India," he added.

(With Parminder Bariana, Rohit Gour and Jyoti Kamal in Punjab)