Battered Oriya workers return from Uganda

BHUBANESWAR: The world's poorest African countries of Uganda, Sudan and South Africa attracting unskilled workforce from Orissa has baffled authorities here. In a third such incident in the past four months, four labourers returned from Uganda on Thursday to tell the sordid tale of exploitation and torture in the name of giving them high-paid jobs. "We four were deported because we were the ones who were vocal against torture and our rights. We could communicate in Hindi and English to some extent. But 11 others are still living in hell," said Krushna Chandra Sashamal, a resident of Puri district, who returned from the African country on Thursday, along with Keshav Samal, Madhab Swain and Pramod Paikray. They had gone to Uganda in June to work in a company manufacturing iron products. The four and family members of the 11 Oriya workers still in Uganda, pleaded before the labour commissioner on Friday to help rescue them. "My husband has even stopped calling me over the phone since the past five days. He seemed tense when we last spoke," said Tulasi, wife of Cuttack district resident Sanatan Nayak, who is still in Uganda. "A contractor made an agreement to send us to South Africa, promising Rs 15,000 per month to unskilled labourers and Rs 16,000 to semi-skilled workers such as masons and plumbers. But he sent us to Uganda instead," said Swain. He said after they raised their voice against the anomaly, "the employer assaulted us and handed us over to police. Surprisingly, police helped us get back our travel documents to send us back". Labour commissioner Alekh Chandra Padhiary said the department can't do much in the case as it has no say over incidents in another country. He, however, said the state government would take up the matter with the Union ministry of Indian Overseas affairs to inquire into the matter.
Besides, the government will probe into the role of the local contractor here. "I have asked the labour officer in Puri district to submit a report at the earliest," Padhiary said, expressing anguish over how poor labourers were misled into going to countries poorer than India, though there are better employment opportunities here.
Notably in October, 150 labourers from Khurda district were allegedly detained at a construction site in Sudan after 214 labourers from Banpur and Khurda blocks went there through an Andhra Pradesh-based construction company last year. Fifty-one of them managed to return while the Union government had to intervene to bring others back.
Earler in July, the state government, with the help of the Centre, brought back 23 labourers from South Africa, where they were allegedly tortured. They were residents Jajpur, Cuttack and Jagatsinghpur districts.