SRIKAKULAM: Even as the 24 workers from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha have been stranded in Riyadh of Saudi Arabia for almost a month, the kin of the victims from Srikakulam district met collector K Dhanunjaya Reddy and MP K Ram Mohan Naidu on Friday, urging them to initiate measures to ensure their safe return to the country.
The kin of the workers narrated the problems their dear ones have been facing in the foreign land for the last one month.
“I have two kids and an aging mother-in-law. My husband is the sole bread winner of the family. He went to abroad in the hope of earning a better living. But, now he is in the dire straits.
The job agents have duped us. I just want my husband’s safe return to India,” said Dumpa Rajeswari, a native of Telukunchi and wife of D Bairagi among the stranded workers in Riyadh.
The victims even broke down in the collector’s chamber and pleaded to initiate measures to ensure the safe return of their dear ones. Responding to the pleas, MP Ram Mohan Naidu said that he had spoken to the Union external affairs ministry on the issue twice.
After the families informed him that the Saudi company had registered cases against the workers, the MP promised that he would arrange for food and shelter for the workers in Riyadh.
“I will raise the issue in the Parliament. Police will take actions against the institutions which are sending the workers to abroad through illegal routes,” Ram Mohan Naidu said.
Collector Dhanunjaya Reddy also said that he would write to the external affairs ministry. “I will speak to the ministry today itself. We are putting in all possible efforts to get the stranded workers back to India,” he promised.