The stranded workers in the park near the Indian embassy yesterday

Doha

Five Indian labourers, waiting for their repatriation, have ended up living in a park in the vicinity of their country’s embassy in Al Hilal area.
On Sunday night, when Qatar had its first rain of the season, they were left to fend for themselves. Seeing their predicament, a resident of the locality took his vehicle out from the covered parking to provide them shelter.
While one of the workers has been literally on the street since August this year, others joined him one after another in the following months, inquiries found. They are all under different sponsors.
As per their visa, they were to work at their sponsor’s house even though the visa of one of them was allegedly issued in the name of a construction firm executing many major works across the country.
Speaking to Gulf Times yesterday, one of the labourers said even though he had not completed his driving lessons, his employer compelled him to work as a driver in an interior area of Qatar, a claim that could not be verified. While he was working at his sponsor's home, he was given a salary of QR700 only with which he had to meet the expenses for food also.  
While explaining his predicament, the expatriate said he had been shuttling between the park, his ‘accommodation’, and the Deportation Centre at least once in three days hoping to get repatriated but to no avail.
The workers have kept their bare minimum luggage in a waiting shed near the park.
"Every time, officials tell me that my sponsor is out of the country and could not be contacted. I am desperate and want to see my kids at the earliest," he said, showing a picture of his wife and children.
Another man in the group said he was recruited for a job at a bakery. "However, only on reaching here that I could realise that I was cheated by my agent, as I was asked to report for duties at a local home," he said.
Others too had similar stories to tell. They have only one thing in common - they have all absconded from their employers, at least technically.
"We are idling away our time sitting in this park the whole day and are being fed twice a day by the Indian embassy’s benevolent forum. Since it is illegal to work for anyone other than our sponsor, we just can’t do anything,” said one who seemed to be the eldest member of the group.
An Indian embassy official told Gulf Times that the local rules do not allow the mission to keep these expatriates at its premises.
The official said he is hopeful that the issues of all these labourers except one in the group are expected to be sorted out in the next 10-15 days and they could be repatriated "shortly".
The official also explained that none of them has a valid employment contract and it makes the embassy's task extremely difficult. "In spite of such shortcomings we are intervening on humanitarian grounds," he said while pointing out that everything except accommodation is provided by the embassy.
Inquiries with the affected workers also found that the mission's PRO takes them every time they have to go to the Deportation Centre.
During the summer this year, there was another batch of five or six labourers in similar conditions in the same park, sleeping in the open lawns. However, all of them have been repatriated by the Indian embassy, inquiries found.

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