MANGALURU: After months of ordeal, 19 Mangaloreans who were stranded in Kuwait due to job fraud finally returned to India on Thursday.
The passports and tickets for the return of 19 Mangaloreans were handed over by Indian Embassy Second Secretary Sibi U S to former Institute of Engineers (Kuwait chapter) president Inbatamizh Ilangovan and another Indian expat Manjeshwar Mohandas Kamath.
The duo reached Mumbai on Thursday and are expected to reach Mangaluru on Friday morning.
Mohammed Siddiq who was cheated by employment agency Manikya Associates and reached Mumbai airport on Thursday, speaking to TNIE, said it was on January 7 this year he left India with lots of hopes.
“I was offered a lucrative job as delivery boy during an interview in September last year, in a firm called ‘Carriage’ in Kuwait.
There were around 200 job aspirants from various states like Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh for interview.
They selected all of us and we never expected that we would be cheated. We were promised around Rs 45,000 salary for 12 hours of work.
We had formed a WhatsApp group of those who attended the interview and we were in touch. We were already working for a company and many others too had better jobs here.”
He said, “The agent insisted on getting a Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) and I left my job. I was asked to pay Rs 10,000 for issuing visa, though he had promised initially that no amount would be taken. In addition, I was asked to pay Rs 65,000.
"He delayed issuing the visa and we had submitted our passports to the agency. For almost three months, we suffered in Mangaluru without any confirmation regarding our new job. Finally we got our visa and left the city on January 7,” Siddiq added.
Mohandas Kamath said Mangaloreans after reaching Mumbai airport will head to their native places by road.