Bid to bring home 7 harassed in Saudi

RAMESWRAM: Moral pressure from several families of allegedly tortured expatriate workers from Ramanathapuram district in Tamil Nadu, to bring them back home, has forced the district administration to take remedial steps.

This follows seven workers from Ramanathapuram district, out of a batch of 19 workers from the State, who had been recently ‘recruited’ by local agents three months ago for the post of drivers in Saudi Arabia, who complained of ‘torture’ to their family members back in Ramnad recently over the phone.

The affected workers had reportedly told their kin that they had been given some odd jobs unrelated to what they were recruited for. When some of them questioned their employers about it, their passports and other travel documents were allegedly taken away and they were confined to a room with no proper food or water, sources said. Reported accounts of the harassed workers have sent shockwaves across Ramanthapuram district.

The family members of the seven affected workers recently even threatened to commit suicide before the Ramanthapuram district Collectorate if the administration took no steps to bring them back home, sources said.

Following this, first steps have been taken now through recruiting agents in Paramakudi in the district to bring back two of the seven affected workers, with an assurance that the others too would be brought back home. The affected families have now decided to wait patiently till next Monday.