DOHA: Fifty-three Nepali youths, who arrived Saudi Arabia nine months ago in quest for lucrative jobs, have been lying stranded for long.

About a month ago, a representative of the Nepalese embassy in Riyadh, the stranded Nepali youths and Kamalesh Tiwari, the manager of the Workforce Services Pvt. Ltd had signed an agreement in which Tiwari had promised to facilitate the return of the stranded youths.

During the tripartite discussion, Tiwari, the manager of the work force, said that the embassy would complete the exit visa process for 17 people and the manpower would arrange air tickets and send them to Nepal. Similarly, Tiwari had promised that Yuba raj Rawat, Tejbir Khatri, Lokendra Bahadur Bisht and Shantbir Pakhrin would be sent to work in coordination with the employers and rest of the workers who wanted to return home would be sent home after further arrangements.

However, manager Tiwari, who is currently in Saudi Arabia, did not even pay for the food, forcing the victims to starve, and many of his friends fell ill because of the food, said Mohammad Ramjan Miya of Sunsari.

Another youth Anil Chaudhary  has been lying seriously ill for the past 7-8 days, yet when they try to contact Tiwari, the latter has been responding irresponsibly.

“Generally he (Tiwari) does not receive the phone, and even if he receives he says I can do nothing more,” Miya complained, adding, “We will starve to death if not rescued on time.”

Lately, Tiwari has started replying that he would not be paying for the food and lodging any more.

“He (the manpower company’s manager) has threatened to dismiss from the room from July 10,” the youths said in one voice.

The bathroom is jammed. The room is dirty. We are forced to pass the daytime in the hot sun of 50-55 degrees, they said ahead.

The youths were sent from Kathmandu based Tokyo Overseas, Workforce Services and De Proton Manpower Pvt. Ltd promising to provide job in a poultry farm situated in Almaraj.

The youths had protested after the company got seven arrested for no reason and did not pay them the promised amount. After the youths protest, six out of seven jailed workers were sent home in facilitation of Nepali Embassy.

The victims have not even received their salary for two months and 10 days. They had reached there about seven months ago by paying Rs 180,000 to Rs 200,000 per person to the manpower and various agents.

Earlier, Tiwari, the manager of the Workforce Services Pvt. had signed the agreement on behalf of all three manpower companies.

However, while speaking with Khabarhub, Tiwari said that he has been paying for the food and have paid 2550 riyal to the embassy for the document to prepare the travel document of 17 youths.  According to him the process of preparing exit visa of the rest of the youths was underway and five youths who promised to continue working here would soon be sent to work.