The workers, brought here as cleaners by a private manpower supply company, want to go home because they say their sponsor has been violating the terms of their contracts ever since they arrived in July 2009.
They want their passports back as well as return tickets. Their families have organized sit-in protests in front of Nepal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Katmandu, demanding the workers’ repatriation.
The workers say their iqamas are ready but they have not been handed over to them. Only two of them have been given photocopies of their iqamas. They claim their monthly salary of SR550 is not paid regularly. When their pay is given to them, they say it is usually not the full amount.
Their biggest complaint is about the quality of their accommodation and the beatings by the sponsor and his staff.
They say for two months in the beginning they were made to sleep in the open on the terrace of an old building because over 200 workers were already staying there. A temporary room was constructed on the terrace but it was so small that they were unable to sleep properly.
In January, the Nepalese Embassy in Riyadh appointed a lawyer to represent them at the Labor Court, which issued a memo to the sponsor.
According to the workers, the sponsor tore up the memo and threatened them. The court then sent police officers to the sponsor, who could not be located at the time, leaving the matter unresolved.
The workers, who were doing mostly cleaning work at King Abdulaziz International Airport, have been striking since Feb. 8.
They spent more than a month under the Sharafia Bridge unsuccessfully pleading with police to send them home.
According to an official of the Nepali Sewa Samiti, an organization for Nepalese expatriates in Saudi Arabia, there are 550,000 Nepalese citizens working in the Kingdom.
Krishna Kumar Shresht said around 150,000 out of this number complain of being mistreated by their sponsors.
The Samiti has come to the rescue of the workers, feeding them and renting temporary accommodation on their behalf.
It has even paid the lawyer’s fee of SR12,000 plus other charges. The agent in Katmandu that recruited them is also supporting them financially and wants them home as soon as possible, said Shresht.
The sponsor could not be reached when Arab News tried to contact him.
