Their departure was made possible thanks to the intervention of the Human Rights Commission and the Labor Office in Jeddah after Arab News published a report about their plight on March 25.

The workers, who were brought here as cleaners by a private manpower supply company in July 2009, stopped working on Feb. 8 complaining of unpaid salaries and lack of accommodation as well as mistreatment at the hands of their sponsor. After news of their situation appeared in Arab News, the Human Rights Commission contacted the Labor Office, which summoned the sponsor as well as representatives of the Nepalese Embassy and the Nepali Sewa Samiti, a nongovernmental organization lobbying for the workers cause.

The issue was settled after the sponsor returned the passports to the workers and cleared their dues.

Since the workers had abandoned their employer, they could not claim their return tickets.

However, the recruiting agency in Nepal agreed to pay for their return tickets. As per the agreement, they surrendered to police. They then remained in jail for three weeks, during which legal formalities were completed.

The workers had spent nearly two months under the Sharfia Bridge, unsuccessfully pleading with police to arrest them and send them home.

According to the figures released this week by Nepal's Department of Foreign Employment, Saudi Arabia is the second biggest job market for Nepalese after Malaysia.

During the first 10 months of the fiscal year, 230,934 Nepalese workers went abroad, 50,085 of them to the Kingdom.

Krishna Kumar Shresht, an official from the Samiti, said complaints of mistreatment are common among the 550,000 Nepalese workers living in the Kingdom.

He said his government might blacklist Saudi companies that violate the terms of their contracts. Saudi Arabia does not have an embassy in Katmandu. The Saudi employment visa is stamped either in Dhaka or New Delhi.

According to Narbahadur Shreshtha, another official from the Samiti, this causes inconvenience as it also allows unscrupulous recruitment agents to exploit ordinary workers.