24 men who returned from Russia, say made to work like slaves, given meal once a day there

Twenty-four men from Punjab's Doaba region, who have returned home after being held up in Russia for months, complained on Friday that they were made to "work like slaves" and given inadequate food only once a day by their employers for a fortnight.

They narrated their ordeal when they came to record their statement with police against two travel agents, who allegedly duped them by promising them lucrative jobs at a Russian company.

The External Affairs Ministry and its mission in Russia helped the men return home on Dec 16.

A total of 26 men were stranded in Russia but one of them, Malkiat Singh alias Sonu (25), died of an unspecified illness allegedly after the company did not provide him medical aid in time.

The body was brought back by his friend Joginderpal, who did not return to Russia.

Residents of Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Nawanshar districts, 13 of the men are aged between 21-25 years and unmarried, while the rest 12 are married and between 30-40 years of age. They said they were happy to reunite with their families.

"For 15 days, we were given meal only once a day and we had to work like slaves," Pinku Ram, a resident of Narang Shahpur, said.

"We were not given salary for six months as the company said it had deducted the amount paid for our tickets and visas from their salary," said Dharminder of Rasulpur village.

According to the agreement, the travel agents Surinder Singh and Daljit Singh had promised them a monthly salary of Rs 35,000 and additional pay for overtime.

"But nothing of the sort happened and we had to slug it out like slaves for more than 8 hours and even on Sundays at far less salary than promised," Rakesh Kumar of Mandhali village said.

"We were employed in a company other than the one promised," Kumar said, ruing, "We have gone for a bright future but faced a bleak one."