Source : Arab News

 
JEDDAH - JAN 28: Twenty-two Indian engineers have been brought to the Kingdom by a Saudi company and then abandoned without jobs and iqamas.

The engineers were brought to the Kingdom by the company, which then canceled their visas when they arrived claiming they were stolen and that it is unable to employ them.

According to a petition filed at the Indian Embassy by the Federation of Kerala Associations in Saudi Arabia and which Arab News has seen, all the engineers were brought to the Kingdom by the same company.

The engineers say that it claims to be investigating the theft and cannot hire them in the meantime.

One of those affected is 26-year-old Islah Uddin, who arrived in Riyadh on Feb. 24, 2009. He told Arab News that, contrary to what he was told, the company did not send a representative to pick him up at the airport. The next day he went to the company’s office and met the administrative manager who told him that his visa had been stolen and that the company is unable to give him a job.

“Now when I go to the company they tell me to go away, do whatever you want, but don’t come to us,” said Uddin, who is from the state of Uttar Pradesh.

“It’s been nearly a year since I came to the Kingdom. Me and the other engineers are all stranded without salary or compensation, and neither are we being sent back home,” he added. “How long can we continue like this?” he said.

“At first we found Islah Uddin, then we found that there were 21 other engineers in the same situation who had come to work for the same company,” said R. Murleedharan, president of the Federation of Kerala Associations in Saudi Arabia.

“The engineers are highly qualified, some having gained their education in the UK. Without a job and salary they are barely able to survive. They are having so much trouble in terms of accommodation and food,” he added.

No one was available for comment at the Indian Embassy.