Without any work from the last few months and source of income, workers are unable to purchase groceries, and other essential items and are facing untold hardships in an alien land.
RIYADH — Over fifty NRI workers from various districts of Telangana in Saudi Arabia are in dire need of food and other essential supplies.
Without any work from the last few months and source of income, workers are unable to purchase groceries, and other essential items and are facing untold hardships in an alien land.
Rice is costly in Gulf countries and Arab wheat bread is cheaper. Commonly, NRIs from Telangana usually avoid consuming bread and prefer only rice. However, due to lack of money now these workers are forced to eat bread.
“We are struggling for even drinking water,” workers complained. “We fill water from a nearby mosque and sometime the worshippers there provide us food,” they said.
Odd jobs
Many of these workers were doing odd jobs at construction sites with the support of Bangladeshi manpower supply agents for their survival, but recently due to increased checking by the police, they are not able to find any jobs.
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“Our friends and relatives have been supporting us for quite some time but now they too are exhausted. Also, they too are like us low paid workers who can’t continue to keep us” said Gotarla Balraj, a resident of Rajanna Sircilla district.
“My family had arranged some money for me for the food which is now over,” Mohammed Javeed, native of Karimnagar town, said.
Sarangi Sayanna of Nizamabad district said, “Due to costly rice, we are buying Arabic bread, which is cheap compared to rice.”
The workers who had come to work as drivers, shepherds, agricultural helpers and do other menial jobs in various provinces of Saudi Arabia, are on the run from their original employers for whom they had come to work, following work and wage-related disputes, mainly excess work and low pay. Now, they have become illegal and are working in contravention of Saudi laws.
Many tried desperately to avail amnesty to return home but due to complaints lodged against them by their former employers are unable to return due to legal tangles.
They usually come to know each other at Saudi Passport offices and Indian Embassy during the amnesty period.
c.telanganatoday.com
