--Make fervent appeal for safe return home: Again, the plight of Odia migrant workers subjected to exploitation and harassment in foreign countries has come to the fore with 14 such victims from Kendrapada district, who are in South Africa, making a fervent appeal for safe return home.
The victim youths are from Jaynagar, Trailokapur and Koilipur villages under Rajkanika block. With the help of a local agent, they went to South Africa in June 2022 to work as labourers at Gabon-based Sunrise Plywood Company in South Africa.
However, recently they requested through a video clip to the district administration and also to the State Government for their rescue. They alleged that the company employees have been torturing them physically. The owner of the company neither clears their pending salaries for the last four months nor allows them to return from the country. As a result, they have been leading a cursed life without food for days together, alleged one Jayanta Mallick, one of the ill-fated youths in a video clip.
“We are staying inside a forest. We don’t have any medical facilities. We request the district administration of Kendrapada and the CM of Odisha to make necessary arrangements for our safe return to the State,” said Rajat Kumar Mallick, another victim.
Meanwhile, in Kendrapada, their family members are a worried lot as they have been moving from pillar to post to bring their family members back.
