A group of Indian cleaning workers whose work contract expired two years ago have still not been able to return home. They do not want to work anymore and are desperate to return home. Most of them are from Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

A maintenance and contracting company in Taif, which was awarded Taif Municipality’s cleaning contract, had recruited these workers in 2010. But since then they have not been paid on time and was also denied their residency permits, the workers alleged.

“We are just exhausted and frustrated. We do not want to stay anymore with our employer and we want to return home,” the workers told Arab News.

The employer has not handed over their iqamas to these workers since their arrival into Kingdom four years ago and last week one of their colleagues was detained by security authorities during an inspection campaign, according to workers. (It is a common practice among municipality cleaning companies across the Kingdom not to hand over iqamas to the cleaners as a precautionary measure to prevent their fleeing from jobs).

These workers went on strike twice for non-payment of wages and not being handed over their iqamas. Last year when they protested, Taif Police had to intervene.

Due to poor record of cleaning and frequent labor strikes that resulted in garbage piling up in the hill resort city, Taif Municipality has not renewed the cleaning contract of the company which expired in October 2013, and since then situation of these workers has aggravated.

Workers complained that their salary is SR600 per month that too was not paid on time pushing them into extreme difficult conditions.

“We are without iqama or money. We had asked Indian consulate in Jeddah for help and they had advised us to come over to Jeddah to lodge an official complaint, but due to our having no iqama we simply couldn’t travel,” they said.

They alleged that their employer is attempting to supply them as manpower to other companies in major cities.

“We were brought to Jeddah for a few days then moved back to Taif, and after few weeks we were taken to Riyadh. We are being moved all around without iqama in our employer’s transport vehicle and only the driver has papers,” the workers said.

“In Riyadh, we were kept at Batha by our employer. One of our colleagues, V. Bhoomaih, who was detained by Riyadh Police a week ago for not having Iqama, is still locked up. Since then we are not stepping outside for fear of arrest as massive inspection is taking place in some areas of Riyadh city,” they said.

The workers are requesting Indian embassy in Riyadh to help them to return home to India.