The
workers at Jeddah were not paid off the salary since last 8 months. Their fear
for returning home is that their family had owed money in India; and as they
will reach the home, the money lender will ask to pay the debt. An stranded Indian,
Kuman Singh said, “At What hope we will reach our home? If we reach at Delhi,
we have even no incidental expenses to reach up to there.”
The
Foreign Minister, Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday, said sternly to the workmen to
lodge their claims for the dues and to return home by September 25 next month.
She said, “Whenever the government of Saudi Arabia will decide about the companies, it
will also finalize the claimants’ disposal; but it can take some time span for
redress.”
She
added, “If they fail to reach within the last date, they will have to manage
themselves for food, travel expenses and lodging.”
A sharp drop in oil prices has forced cuts
to state spending in Saudi Arabia, the world's top crude exporter. Construction
firms have been squeezed financially and have laid off tens of thousands of
South Asian and other foreign workers.
More than
6,200 of the stranded Indian workers were employed by construction firm Saudi
Oger, a conglomerate owned by the family of former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad
al-Hariri, which has been unable to pay workers' salaries for months, according
to Indian officials.
