RIYADH, 12 August 2003 — The Indian Embassy has received 616 complaints from Indians involving contractual violations by their Saudi sponsors during the last six months. Of those, 430 were from Riyadh and the remainder from Jeddah.
A spokesman from the embassy’s community welfare section told Arab News that the majority of cases related to non-payment of salary, failure to provide accommodation as specified in the contract, denial of leave and failure to provide an exit visa at the expiry of the contract.
The spokesman said there were 95 cases of missing persons from April to May 31 this year. Of these, 40 were from Kerala. A breakdown of these 40 cases shows that the whereabouts of 25 remain unknown while the remaining 15 were traced.
The spokesman said the numbers had remained more or less the same for the past three years. Last year, the embassy received 1,015 complaints while in 2001 and 2000, the figures were 1,268 and 1,278 respectively.
He said one case involved the misrepresentation of facts by a manpower supply agency. Some 71 Indians were recruited after being told they would be working for a Saudi Aramco subcontractor.
When they arrived in the Eastern Province, it turned out their employer was a small business with none of the facilities that were promised. They were housed 17 to a room and lived in considerable discomfort.
They were paid for only a few months and then left to their own devices. When they complained, their employer confronted the labor court with a false record, purportedly showing that the employees were being paid regularly. The spokesman said the embassy also provided financial assistance to deserving Indian nationals. Thus a burn victim will be given financial assistance to enable him to return to his native state of Kerala.