18 April,2010 02:00 AM IST | | Ramkumar Iyer
69 Indians deported from Gulf in two weeks. They claim companies do it to not pay salaries
In what seems to be a case of recession-hit Gulf countries trying to save money, 69 Indian nationals have been deported to India from Qatar and Dubai in the past fortnight.
They claim they were sent home for asking for their overdue salaries. Alkesh Sharma, ex-Managing Director of The One Line General Trading Company in Dubai, was allegedly jailed for five months when his company reported that he was absconding. "I was issued a driving license in November 2008, while the complaint stated that I was absconding since August 2008. Obviously this was done to avoid paying my overdue salary of 14 months.
When I appealed to the Labour Ministry and Dubai Court, I was arrested. The Indian Consulate in Dubai did not help except to verify my nationality and to state that I was not absconding, based on my papers," he says. It's the same story for 68 deported employees of Industrial Technology WLL in Doha, Qatar. "When we asked for overdue pay of three months, we were deported on April 15," said Bhuvan Tembre. Both companies remained unavailable for comment.
