Sixteen Indian employees have claimed that they have been detained in “prison-like conditions” at the Libyan Cement Company’s Benghazi plant for the last four months after they objected to their employer’s excessive work hours, inconsistent compensation, and violation of their contract.
The employees come from all around Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. The laborers claimed that a Libyan “contractor” named Abu Bakkar, who works in Dubai, made it possible for them to come from India via Dubai.
According to 26-year-old Mithilesh Vishwakarma, who hails from Gorakhpur in eastern Uttar Pradesh, he traveled to Dubai from Lucknow on September 16 of last year. Mr. Bakkar paid for his plane ticket and arranged for a Libyan tourist visa, making it easier for him to travel from Dubai to Benghazi.
Under the pretense of “updating his visa status,” Mr. Vishwakarma said that his passport was confiscated when he arrived in Benghazi, the second-largest city in Libya. Since then, he has not received his passport back. According to Mr. Vishwakarma, the passports of other employees were also revoked in a similar fashion.
He claimed that when he saw a significant pay drop in the third month of his employment, problems started. He claimed that because the other employees warned him of the serious repercussions, he chose not to bring up the matter. Wage payments soon became irregular, and work hours—which were set at eight and a half when he started—began to lengthen. About four months ago, they doubled, and workers were called in after midnight to complete ad hoc shifts.
