BHUBANESWAR: Santosh Kumar Swain, a native of Khurda district who was working in Abu Dhabi in a very precarious condition, returned to Capital City on Sunday following the efforts of former Kendrapara MP Baijayant Panda who had taken up the matter with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Indian Ambassador in Abu Dhabi Navdeep Singh Puri.
Thanking Panda for his efforts, Puri said in a tweet that a report will be submitted to the Government of India after collecting information on all such cases which are increasing. “We are committed to helping any Indian in distress. But having seen countless such cases of exploitation, a key challenge is to bring unscrupulous recruitment agents to book,” he said.
Panda had brought the case to the notice of Puri in a letter on October 1. As informed by his brother-in-law, Satikant Sahoo, Panda said Swain was working at Naithil’s General Contracting LLC, Abu Dhabi, UAE for the last eight to nine months. “He was working there in a very precarious condition without basic facilities and the contractor was not providing any food,” Panda said and added that the salary did not match the company’s earlier commitment.