Unpaid wages, seized passports: 14 Jharkhand workers stranded in Dubai seek help

Fourteen migrant workers from Jharkhand are stranded in Dubai, struggling to arrange daily food and shelter after their employer allegedly failed to pay the promised wages and blocked their return to India by withholding their passports.

The workers, hailing from Giridih, Hazaribagh and Bokaro districts, sent a video appeal detailing their ordeal, prompting social activist Sikandar Ali to seek urgent government intervention. In the video, the men describe surviving on borrowed food and facing threats of eviction from their accommodation.

Deepak Kumar, a 32-year-old transmission line worker from Hazaribagh, said the group was recruited to work for Dubai-based EMC Electromechanical Co LLC with an agreed monthly salary of 1,600 dirhams. “We were contacted by a man who had worked with the company earlier. He convinced us to come here, but after arriving, we are barely paid 1,000 dirhams,” Kumar said.

Another worker, Daleshwar Mahto from Bokaro, said the terms discussed before departure included free flight tickets, food, accommodation and visas, with no deductions from salaries. “We asked for a written agreement in Jharkhand but were told it would be done in Dubai. No agreement was signed after we arrived,” he alleged.

Mahto claimed that nearly 1,000 dirhams were being deducted each month from every worker’s salary, along with an additional charge of 50 dirhams for accommodation. He further alleged that the camp supervisor demanded 5,000 dirhams and threatened eviction if the amount was not paid. “When we said we wanted to stop work and return home, our passports were not returned,” he said.

Another worker, Rajesh Kumar, said the recruitment interview was conducted over WhatsApp and that all assurances were verbal. “The company manager told us everything would be taken care of. But once we came here, everything changed. Now we just want to go back,” he said.

Responding to the allegations, EMC HR official Manjunath Nagvi said the workers had been paid and were unwilling to work. He added that the company had invested in two-year visas and could not send them back within a month.

Meanwhile, Jharkhand Labour Department official Shikha Lakra said the complaint had been received and would be verified before further action.

Recruitment agent Ghanshyam Mahato, however, said the workers were informed in advance that airfare costs would be recovered from their salaries, claiming the deductions were part of that arrangement.

As the dispute continues, the workers say their immediate concern is survival and the hope of returning home safely.