The 49 youth, who had gone to Malaysia in July with the dream of getting a decent employment, have returned home with tales of woes.
As youth from Thalaivankottai, Ariyoor and Paraipatti in Kadayanallur taluk are well trained in erection of high-power transmission towers, a Malaysian firm with branch in Coimbatore hired 21 of them from these villages, four from Kovilpatti, seven from Jolarpet and 17 from other places of Tamil Nadu.
They were deployed in a jungle in Malaysia, where high-power transmission towers had to be erected. They, they had to spent the nights in containers powered for only two hours. “We took bath in a river, from where we collected water for drinking. We travelled about 45 km to reach the work spot every day,” one of the rescued labourers said.
The problem started with erratic supply of essential commodities by the contractor after 45 days. There was also non-availability of proper tools required for work. “We, however, completed the work with the available tools and ate the available food,” he said.
Meanwhile, the contractor, through his branch office in Coimbatore, deposited the salary in their accounts, along with ₹10,000, each prior to Deepavali.
When a brawl broke out between the person managing the Tamil migrant labourers and the driver, who transported them to the work spot, the driver got arrested and hence reaching the workplace became tougher. “As we took up the issue with the contractor, a Malaysian Tamil, he told us that he would file a complaint with the police if they failed to turn up for work. Hence, we decided to escape from the camp,” another labourer said.
In mid-November, they escaped from the camp and walked for about 14 hours to reach the nearby main road. Meanwhile, one of them contacted his relative, Subbiah Pandian of Thalaivankottai, over the phone and narrated their ordeals.
Based on the efforts taken by Mr. Pandian, the affected families contacted Thiruvadanai MLA Karunaas, who asked his friends in Malaysia to find the location of the labourers. After ascertaining their location, Tamil youth rushed to the spot with a couple of trucks and took the labourers to a temple.
“When we were at the temple, the local legislator, a Malaysian Tamil woman, took up our issue with the Indian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur. Her initiatives also led to the arrest of our contractor, who had already confiscated our passports,” the youth said.
Meanwhile, the labourers were shifted to the immigrants’ camp. “We spent over 45 days in the camp in inhuman conditions,” another youth said.
When DMK MP Kanimozhi visited Courtallam in January, relatives of the detained youth submitted a memorandum to her. Subsequently, she took up the matter with Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj that led to their release.
When they reached Thalaivankottai at 1.40 a.m. on Thursday, the entire village was waiting to receive their breadwinners, who returned home after a lot of ordeals, but without any money.
