In Kabul, stranded Indians take refuge in a gurdwara

KABUL: Dozens of Indian labourers have been forced to take refuge in Kabul’s Sikh temple after job agents who promised lucrative jobs in the unstable capital disappeared, leaving the men penniless and without passports.

Billions of dollars in Western military contracts have turned Afghanistan — long a source of refugees fleeing chronic conflict — into an unlikely magnet for migrant workers willing to risk their lives for a more lucrative pay packet.

Around 200 stranded men were crowded into the Karte Parwan Gurdwara, the centre of Afghanistan’s small Sikh community, last month. Many flew home after their families scraped together funds for flights and travel documents, but over 30 are still stuck. Mumbai-native Subhedar Khandu is one of them. He said he paid Rs 1,50,000 ($3,300) to an agent who promised he would earn $800 a month doing construction in Afghanistan.

“I took out a loan to pay the agent, who I met in Mumbai. I thought I would get a one-year contact,” Khandu said. Instead, when he arrived in November, he was locked up in a house with other labourers, given only one meal per day and no work or salary. When his visa expired a month later, the agent vanished and the men turned to their embassy in desperation.

“We were locked in a kind of camp for one month. This is much better but we have nothing to do still, we just sleep a lot.” Contractors supplying foreign troops, who have been fighting in Afghanistan for over eight years, often rely on foreign migrant workers for menial but comparatively well-paid jobs in construction, food preparation and other fields.

with thanks : source : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/In-Kabul-stranded-Indians-take-refuge-in-a-gurdwara/articleshow/5431730.cms

SikhsIndia
www.sohnijodi.com
www.sikhsindia.blogspot.com