11 Odia ‘Bonded’ Labourers Plead For Help From Sri Lanka

Bhubaneswar: Eleven labourers from Odisha are allegedly stranded in Sri Lanka and being physically tortured by the employer there.

In a video, which is doing the rounds on social media, they can be seen pleading to be rescued from the clutches of the employer, who allegedly has demanded Rs 2 lakh to free them.

One of them, who identified himself as Ashish Kumar Maharana, named two middlemen, Deepak Padhi of Gopinathpur Deepak and Prakash Samantary of Tentulideha, and said that they took Rs 60,000 from each of them with the promise to get them a job in a reputed company with a salary of Rs 30,000 a month. However, they are now being made to work for 15 hours a day without proper food. “We are given only rice and dal and going hungry for the last four days,” he said.

He further alleged that the middlemen has sold them off to the employer.

The other labourers with folded hands can be heard saying that they want to go back to the villages.

Another labourer, Deepak Pradhan, said they are being beaten up and not provided proper medical care when ill.