Stranded for over two months now in Tajikistan, 35 workers from Jharkhand are expected to return to their homeland and home state soon, an official was quoted on saying this Tuesday.
A state migrant cell official said that 22 of the 35 workers stuck in the central Asian country, will return to Jharkhand while the rest will return once their tickets are booked. Jharkhand Chief Minister, Hemant Soren later retweeted a tweet of the state migrant cell informing that the Indian Embassy in Tajikistan was contacted for the safe return of the migrants.
Working as laborers, while interacting with their family members via social media, the workers alleged that a company employing them in laying of power transmission lines had seized their passports and provided them with scant food and no money at all. The 35 labor workers hail from three districts of Jharkhand; Bokaro, Giridih, and Hazaribagh.
They had left for the central Asian nation on December 19 last year, after being promised handsome pay by agents of the firm operating in India, officials said. Hazaribag Deputy Commissioner Nancy Sahay had earlier said she has received complaints from the kin of the stranded workers that they were forced to lead a life similar to bonded laborers.
"On basis of the complaints, I have informed the state migrant cell to take up the issue with the authorities concerned, and find avenues for the release and safe return of the laborers to their native places as early as possible," Sahay had said.
(PTI inputs)
