34 Keralites’ ordeal in Libya likely to end Tuesday

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - The ordeal of 34 workers from Kerala, stranded in a labour camp in Libya and without any work since the middle of last year, is likely to end Tuesday when they hope to be on a flight back to India, a member of the group said.

Speaking to IANS over phone from Libya, Shibhu, a resident of Kochi, said all the 34 were asked to come to the company for which they were working Saturday morning and told they would be put on a flight back to India Tuesday.

“We have been told that our exit has been stamped and we will be on the flight to India Tuesday. But we told them we will leave the company office only after seeing our passport. We have been asked to wait so as to see our passports with the exit stamped,” Shibhu, who reached Libya in October 2007 to work as a steel fitter, said.

“We were promised a monthly salary of $450 and we did get the salary till the middle of last year. Since then we have no salary and we are holed up in a labour camp. Now we are hoping against hope that finally we can return on Tuesday,” Shaji, a mason who hails from Alappuzha, said.

These workers were employed with an Indonesian construction firm and their two-year contract got over end of last year. Since then, neither has their work permit been renewed, nor have they been paid their outstanding salaries.

In November 2009, after news that there were 74 people from Kerala in Libya, the state’s Leader of Opposition Oommen Chandy took up the issue with Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi, and the ministry facilitated the return of 40 of them in two batches by mid-December.

Biji, the wife of mason P. Velu who is among the 34 in Libya, told IANS that her husband is the family’s only breadwinner and they are struggling now because no money has come from Libya for the past six months.

“We have a three-year-old daughter. We are praying that he (Velu) returns at the earliest. We have suffered a lot because to go to Libya, my husband paid Rs.1 lakh. Now we are left with nothing and we just want him to return,” she said.

–Indo Asian News Service