Six labourers, including five girls, of Malkangiri district, who were recently rescued from a place in Karnataka, were handed over to their respective families by the district administration on Thursday, sources said.
The labourers belong to RSC-1 village in Korukonda block in Malkangiri district and they were rescued by the Chitrakonda police with the help of the Andhra Pradesh police last week.
Police sources said a contractor of Sileru village in Andhra Pradesh had taken these labourers assuring to provide jobs in a company at Rajmahendri in AP.
But he forcibly took them to Karnataka and engaged them as bonded labourers in a project where they were made to work for 16 hours daily.
One of these labourers managed to inform his family about their horrible conditions and harassment.
The family contacted members of the Rights Forum and the Malkangiri district administration to rescue the labourers.
On the direction of the district administration, the Chitrakonda police with the help of AP police traced the contractor on tracking his mobile phone and raided the project site in Karnataka where the contractor had engaged the labourers.
The police rescued the six labourers and produced them before the district administration at Malkangiri before they were later handed over to their families.