21/10/2020
Tons of of Indian staff demand unpaid wages from Saudi development agency | Today News Online
their passports and tickets,” said Chand, who is
part of Lawyers Beyond Borders, a network of
legal experts.
“Many didn’t want to return without their
money but had no choice,” he told the
Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.
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The Indian embassy in Riyadh said the workers’
complaint had been taken up with the company Entertainment (1,881)
and Saudi of cials this month, and that it was
awaiting a response on the matter.
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The Saudi human resources ministry could not
be reached for comment but last month said
workers could log violations through its online
dispute settlement platform or go to a labour
court.
The Nasser S Al Hajri Corporation—which
describes itself on its website as the largest
industrial contractor in the Middle East—did
not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Helpline in demand
Hundreds of thousands of Indian migrant
workers are estimated to have returned home
from Gulf nations this year due to COVID-19,
and activists, lawyers and unions said they
were dealing with fresh complaints about pay
issues on a daily basis.
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The number of wage theft cases reported from
Gulf countries rose more than three-fold
between April and July compared with the same
period last year, says the Business and Human
Rights Resource Centre, which advocates for
human rights in business.
“We started a helpline for Gulf migrants in the
middle of the pandemic and were ooded with
calls of wage theft,” said Rafeek Ravuther,
founder of The Centre for Indian Migrant
Studies, a Kerala-based charity that works for
migrant rights.
“Among them there were hundreds calling in
about (the Nasser S Al Hajri Corporation) and a
few others,” he added. “We consolidated the
complaints and encouraged them to ght this
collectively since it is dif cult to pursue alone
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