How did workers from UP end up trapped in a cement plant in war-torn Libya?

Last month, The Hindu broke the story of 16 Indian workers trapped in ‘prison-like’ conditions at a cement factory in the Libyan city of Benghazi. Their phones and passports had been taken away, they hadn’t been paid their wages for months, and had been forced to work for much longer hours than what was specified in their contract.

These workers, hailing from rural Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, are still awaiting repatriation back to India, which is expected to happen later this month.

What led these young men to seek employment in a place like Libya? What is the modus operandi of the recruitment agents that sent them there on false promises? What is the legal framework in India that regulates man power recruitment for jobs abroad? And what need to change to ensure India’s unemployed poor do not fall into such traps in the future?

Guest: Kunal Shankar, The Hindu’s Deputy Business Editor, and Lucknow correspondent Mayank Kumar.

Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu.

Edited by Jude Francis Weston

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