Indians evacuated from Libya taken to Mumbai

A 28-year old construction worker, Ajay Kumar who returned to Mumbai on Friday from Libya with stories of hardships and depression said, “I sold my clothes to call up my wife for a minute,” “All we could manage to bring with us were a few sets of clothes,” said Amarjeet, a carpenter.

They were a part of more than 100 Indians who were rescued from Libya and flown from Dubai back home on board EK 502. The Emirates flight was one of the few flights which brought back scores of Indians from the strife-torn land Libya. Four Egypt Air chartered flights arrived here on Friday, each bringing approximately 268 Indians home.

Some of them had seen their friends die in front of their eyes, some went hungry for days as their ration was stolen, some ill stayed back home due to the fear of being shot dead if they left their stuffed rooms for the hospital. Their tales of grief were too many, and the time to recount them too short.

Subhash, a 35-year old mason worker from Rajasthan said, “The rioters looted our money, mobile phones, and cameras, everything at gunpoint. Not just that, they even looted our ration. We have been starving since the past six days,”

“I can’t even tell you how we stayed there; 15 of us were crowded into a 10 by 15 foot room. We could not get out of the rooms for fear of our lives. The company did not pay us our dues.

We were left lurching in the dark in those camps,” said Shashi Kapoor, 23-year old plumber from Punjab.

He also said, “The firing continued in our camp for quite a few days. Finally, one of our company officers got 194 of us Indians out of that camp and took us to the Tunisian border. The Indian delegation received us there, took care of us and then sent us to Dubai from where we came back here.”

For all of them, remembering their time in Libya was nothing less to reliving a nightmare. Hari Bilas, a carpenter from Punjab said, “The very thought of Libya sends shivers down my spine.

The phone lines were down. We could not even communicate with our families for more than a month.”

More than 100 construction labourers who came from Libya said they were cheated by an Indian company and sent to Libya on false promises. “They took Rs. one lakh from me and told me they will send me to Libya to work for the Hyundai company,” Gagan Deep, a carpenter from Punjab said.

Abhijeet Biswas, a carpenter from Kolkata said, “There were so many of us who paid the money to R K International. They promised us a salary of Rs. 15,000-20,000 per month, but we were hardly given Rs. 8,000. We had to work there for a Korean company ISU, which further sent us to some local company,”

“We lost all that we had. The Indian company took money from us and we hardly earned anything there. We are only grateful that we came back alive,” he said.