These Indian workers are in Saudi jails for crimes you and I commit every day

Nizamabad: Around 450 Indian workers have been in jail in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for the past four months. These are migrant workers belonging to various states, including Telangana, who landed in jail for petty crimes. The victims urged their respective state governments and the Ministry of External Affairs to get them released and allow them to go back to their native places.

In a video clip received by Deccan Chronicle on Tuesday, some of these inmates explained their woes. According to them, a majority of migrant workers were thos who were imprisoned for signal crossing, vegetable and water sale and lockdown violations. Due to ignorance of local laws, the migrants committed these petty crimes in Saudi Arabia and landed in jail. A similar plight is being faced by migrant workers from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia, they said in the video.

With no money, they are unable to get legal aid in Saudi Arabia. Neither getting work nor able to return home, they have been in jail for the last four months.
“We are the sole breadwinners of our families and they are bearing the brunt back home,” they lamented.

Incidentally, those from Pakistan, Bangladesh and others are being released in a phased manner, while Indian workers are left to languish, they said.

The migrant workers mostly belong to Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

“We appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure our safe release by taking up the issue with Saudi Arabian authorities”, the workers pleaded.