The workers informed the embassy on March 18 that the company had not paid them their salaries and work.
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53 Nepali workers who have been unemployed in Saudi Arabia for two months have not been able to return home.
Nepalis working at Mustafa Ali Atifa Company in the main city of Dammam are staying in a camp after not receiving work and salaries. ‘No one has received their salaries for three months.’ They have been unemployed for two months,’ Binod Mahara told Kantipur, ‘Even after months, our problem has not been resolved.’
Most of them have been working there for 17 months. They were sent to the construction sector in Saudi Arabia by Nepal Life Recruitment Company. Even though the company has obtained permission from the Saudi government to return to Nepal for ‘exit visas’, they are stuck there due to the lockdown.
‘The company has also stopped providing food to workers who have already been issued exit visas,’ Mahara said, ‘We do not have money to eat.’ Where will the money to buy tickets come from?' According to him, the camp manager has gone to the workers who have exit visas and informed them that food has been stopped. 'They told us not to come and talk to us about not getting food,' he said.
According to the Nepali Embassy in Riyadh, 34 of the 53 Nepalis who are unemployed have been allowed to return home. 'After much effort, the employer company is issuing exit visas. We are pressuring the company to provide them with tickets,' said Labor Counselor Kabiraj Upreti, 'We are taking the initiative to provide salaries and tickets.'
The employer, however, is not in favor of sending all the workers at once. The workers had informed the embassy on March 18 that the company had not provided them with salaries and work. The Nepali Embassy is 60 kilometers away from the camp where they are staying. Before that, on February 23, Labor Counselor Upreti's team had reached the camp to assess the situation. 'We have taken out a list of the outstanding salaries of all the workers. The validity of the residence permit (AKAMA) has been determined,' he said. 'Since everyone is interested in returning home, facilitation is being done to send them to Nepal.' The workers are requesting to be sent home as soon as possible.
The company has stated that there is an internal problem among the shareholders and the project it has taken over has not been completed within the specified time.
Although the company has assured that the problem will be resolved within a week-ten days, Mahara said that it has not been resolved. 'We have stopped going to work because we do not trust them,' Mahara said. 'We should be sent to Nepal, not to work.'
