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Bhubaneswar: The stranded Odia labourers in Dubai will finally return home after the intervention of the Indian government. On May 30, the matter was first brought to light by OTV, which reported that 10 labourers from Odisha are stranded in Dubai.
When the matter was flagged on Twitter, External Affairs minister S.Jaishankar had intervened and informed that the Consulate General of India in Dubai is working to resolve the issue. Later, the Consulate General of India in Dubai clarified that 25 workers from Odisha, UP, Bihar and Rajasthan are wanting to return and formalities for their return to be completed in a few days.
Even Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday sought the intervention of the External Affairs Minister for release of the workers.
Sangram Pattnaik, a social worker in Dubai, said, “After getting the contact number of the labourers from OTV office, we went to the consulate general office of Dubai. We hope that the stranded labourers will be back in Odisha in 2 to 3 weeks.”
The stranded Odia labourers are from Nayagarh, Ganjam, Balasore and Jagatsinghpur districts. All of them had gone to Dubai 11 months back and were engaged in carpentry and paint work there.
The labourers had complained of torture and living under difficult conditions in Dubai and shared videos of their plight on social media.
However, after Centre’s assurance, family members of the stranded labourers have thanked the authorities.
“We came to know that they are living under extremely difficult condition. OTV team had reached our village to collect information about them,” sister of a stranded labourer said.
District collector of Ganjam, Kulange Vijay Amruta said, “We will work to bring all the labourers safely back to Odisha.”
This is not the first time that Odia labourers have been found stranded in another country. Earlier, on multiple occasions, Odia labourers were repatriated with the effort of former MP and BJP national Vice-President Baijayant 'Jay' Panda.
