Kin of men stranded in Libya meet Protector of Emigrants

The families of men abandoned in Libya by travel agents 11 months ago met the Protector of Emigrants here and demanded that they should be brought back to India.

Talking to the media on Tuesday,senior vice-president of Lok Bhalai Party Avtar Singh Mullanpuri said: As many as 53 men were sent to Libya on December 9 last year by three travel agents based in Patiala and Jalandhar on the promise of masonry jobs. A contract with a company had been signed and they were promised a salary of around Rs 17,000 per month. But after they landed there,they detected the fraud as the company they had signed the contract with did not exist.

My son Dalip Kumar was promised a job of mason in Libya by the Patiala-based agent who took Rs 1 lakh from him. When Dalip reached there along with others,they realised that they had been cheated, said Shabi Ram of Nawanshahr.

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Kuldeep Kaur of Amritsar said: My husband had gone to Libya for a better future,but he is without work and lives in parks. I,too,have no job here. We are at the mercy of our relatives and also have taken money on loan from lenders to run the house.

These men were sold off to a local building contractor in Libya for US$11,000. When they demanded salary after working for three months, they were told by the contractor that they were his slaves as he had bought them. These men escaped from his clutches,but their passports are still with the contractor, said Mullanpuri.

Protector of Emigrants,Chandigarh,Vinod Kumar said: We will issue show-cause notices to these travel agents and give them 15 days time to reply and give us a date when they will bring these men back. If they do not reply,we will start the proceedings to cancel their licence.

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