The Dangote Refinery Chemi Tech Company has been accused of keeping at least 150 workers from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Jharkhand captive, CNN-News has learnt.
The workers, via video messages to CNN-News-18, have requested the Indian government to get them released from confinement and let them return to their homeland.
The Dangote Refinery is owned by Aliko Dangote and will be inaugurated before the end of 2023 in Lekki, Nigeria. When in full operation, it is expected to have the capacity to process about 6,50,000 barrels per day of crude oil, making it the largest single-train refinery in the world. The investment is over $19 billion.
The labourers were taken from India through Vadodara’s Chemie-Tech company and have been working there since 2019 to construct oil tanks of the refinery. So far, the Indian workers have constructed 155 oil tanks for the project. The company promised to give 1,400-2,000 Dirham as wages to these labourers but the monthly salary has not been paid for the past nine months. The labourers have alleged that they are ill-treated and confined in the campus of the refinery. They also said their passports had been seized and they were not allowed to move out.
Speaking to CNN-News18, Bhesh Narayan Singh of Gopalganj said: “We were brought to Nigeria by Chemie-Tech Company in Vadodara in 2021. Some of us were brought 2-3 years back. Our salary has not been paid for the past nine months and we can’t send money to our family in Bihar. There are at least 150 of us from different states of India. We are just given rice and pulses to eat for survival.”
Another worker, Mohammed Gufran from Muzaffarpur, said: “I request Modi-ji, Yogi-ji and foreign minister Jaishankar-ji to help us. We are stuck here for the past four years and not paid for almost a year. How will our family survive back home? These people have stopped giving us food, they have closed the canteen and they force us to shut our rooms and sit outside. Two months back some Indian workers were brutally beaten at 2am. They threaten to kill us if we speak about money. They threaten to send us to jail. These people don’t even give us medicines — two people have died because doctors didn’t attend to them.”
A worker from Uttar Pradesh’s Kushinagar, Kalilal Gupta, said his child had been removed from school since he was unable to pay the fees. “I request Modi-ji and the external affairs minister to take us out of here. We 150 people plead Indian government to take us back. We are destroyed, our family has come on the streets and this company only gives false promises.”
Neelratan from Hooghly, West Bengal, said: “DGM of the company threatens to kidnap us if we raise our voice. My family back home has registered a complaint in Hooghly police station but no relief has been provided yet. I appeal to Modi-ji and Mamata-di to take us back home from this hell.”
Adding to their woes, several passports of the workers have expired in these four years.
“These people have seized our passports. My passport expired on May 2, how will I return to India now? Here we have finished our work four months back but we haven’t been paid for the last nine months. They are not allowing us to work at other places also so that we can earn a living. Instead, the DGM and project managers misled the embassy by promising they will pay us. The managers lied to the embassy officials that we were staying back by our own will,” said Mohd Yasin of Basti, Uttar Pradesh.
CNN-News18 has accessed the list of the trapped labourers with their contact numbers.
The lists include labourers from Siwan, Gopalganj, Begusarai, Madhubani, Motihari districts of Bihar and workers of Palamu and Garhwa districts of Jharkhand. Labourers from Deoria, Kushinagar, Siddharthnagar, Pratapgarh, Ballia, Basti, Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh and some from Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal are also trapped.
Kin of the trapped workers met the Member of Parliament and District Magistrate of Gopalganj and requested them to bring back the stranded people from Nigeria.
Saalu Kumari from Gopalganj, Bihar, whose father is stranded in Nigeria refinery, told News18: “My father went to Nigeria in 2020. He used to get the salary but for past nine months he is unable to send us money. I appeal to the government to bring my father back and also get his hard earned money. I have tried to approach the embassy through e-mails but no response has come yet.”
CNN-News18 spoke to the project manager of Dangote Oil Refinery to get his side of the story. Jeevak Chauhan said he and the HR department were in continuous touch with the labourers.
“We are in contact with the embassy as well as the labourers and we are trying to bring a solution to this as soon as possible. Money will be directly paid by Dangote and it is in the process.”
When asked about the delay in payment, Chauhan said because of the strike of the local labourers, work stopped intermittently and then the firm faced financial issues. “Since I have joined here recently, I am making all efforts with the HR to get them paid. However, project manager denied the allegation of seizing the passport and said that the passports are submitted to the Human Resource department according to the company’s policy.”
The stranded workers, however, called the promises of payment fake and expressed their desperation to return to their homeland.
Read all the Latest India News and Karnataka Elections 2023 updates here
Comments
0 comment