MADURAI: Twenty six youths from Tamil Nadu have been “illegally detained” by their employer in Libya for demanding the salary “promised” to them, district officials here said on Wednesday.
The youths, including 13 from Melur in the district, have been detained by the authorities of a construction company, Al Jalal, in Tripoli for the past five days, district officials said quoting the memorandum submitted by the relatives of some of them.
The relatives said that the kin of one of them, Duraiswamy, received information from Tripoli that all the 26 have been detained in a room after they refused to work for a “paltry salary”. They were also not given proper food, the relatives said in the memorandum.
The youths, who had left for Tripoli five months back, had been offered salaries equivalent to around Rs 25,000, for different jobs in the company, they said.
A recruitment agent named Ganesan of Vannaparaipatti near Melur had made all arrangements for their travel and job and had received Rs 85,000 each from them, they said.
But they were given only a monthly salary equivalent to Rs 8,000 and were asked to work for 20 hours, the relatives said.
Duraisamy somehow managed to pass the information to his relatives on Tuesday, following which the kin of the 13 persons from Melur sent memorandum seeking steps to secure their release to Union government and the Tamil Nadu government. A copy of it was also submitted to the district administration.
SOURCE: TOI