DOHA: Despite the Nepal government’s initiation to rescue Nepali people from abroad, 33 Nepali people are still left in high and dry in Kuwait after the companies they were working for packed up, citing the coronavirus pandemic.
According to sources, they reached Kuwait through Samakhushi, Kathmandu based S.R.K. Nepal Manpower company 18 months ago. Now, 88 people including 33 from Nepal are lying helpless in that company.
Vinod Mahat from Gulmi, now stranded in Kuwait, complains that he is lying penniless since he, like many other migrant workers in the company, is jobless for more than five months now.
“After the company was closed citing coronavirus pandemic, we have become jobless, nor have we any money for five months now,” he said, adding, “Even the salary of the time we worked before has not been paid to us. We are desperately waiting to be airlifted home.”
According to him, Al Rakib Building Construction Company of Kuwait has laid off its staffers, citing the COVID-19 crisis.
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They had paid Rs 160 thousand each to join the company.
“We paid Rs 160 thousand each to SRK Nepal Manpower to come here, but now we realize that the job we are assigned with is not the same as we were promised,” Mahat said, adding ,”Not only this, we have not got the money of the period we worked for and now we are jobless.”
They complain that their company made them work during the lockdown as well, but later refused to pay citing coronavirus pandemic.
“They promised to give us money provided we worked; we worked putting our lives at stake during lockdown as well, but now the company has been postponing the date for payment saying it will pay for two months together,” he added. “We have no money, and now many have been fired from the job.”
The stranded workers say the supply of goods and other daily essential commodities including the tasks the company used to do have been suspended due to pandemic.
Name list of the stranded appealing for help:
They express their grievances saying that their condition would not have been so pathetic had the manpower company initiated for their rescue. So much so that the electricity and water supply for the place where they have been sheltering have been cut off.
“We are living in the room without AC for more than two months now,” they said, adding “the company has not paid us for the months we worked also. Life is a hell now.”
They appeal to make them heard and take their grievances to the Government of Nepal, Nepal’s Embassy in Kuwait and other concerned authorities.
While inquired at Nepal’s Embassy in Kuwait, the authorities informed that the officials from embassy have been to the place to get the details.
However, the stranded workers complain sadly that nothing has been done for more than a month now.
“It’s more than a month now since the officials from the Embassy visited us, but we have heard no progress on the rescue efforts for us,” the victims say.
According to them, NRNA Kuwait also has done nothing except collecting their namelist.
However, they informed that some youths including Puskar Dhami, the Chairperson of Srijansil Yuva Samaj, Kuwait had offered some relief to them before.
They regret that the manpower company has done nothing to ease their lives and rescue them from Kuwait.
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