Sold for $3,000, Work Like Slaves Without Food: 4 Youths Who Returned from Libya Narrate Ordeal

Four youths, who recently returned to Punjab after they were stuck in Libya for the past two months, claimed on Tuesday that they had been sold by their agents for $3,000 each, a report has said.

The youths- Lakhwinder Singh from Lang Majari, Gurpreet Singh from Kapurthala, Joginder Singh from Moga and Sanoj Kumar of Bihar- were stuck in Libya for two months and returned to their homes on Sunday.

The youths claimed that they were sold, kept as hostages inside a company and made to work like slaves, The Indian Express reported.

They also thanked the Ministry of External Affairs of India, who they said intervened and helped bring them back to their country.

They had gone to work as a labour at the LCC Cement Company located in Benghazi, Libya. However, after reaching there, they were told that they had been sold to the company by their agent and were forced to work for over 18 hours, sometimes without food or water.

Gurpreet Singh said that he had gone to Dubai in December last year for a driver’s job, but was sent to Libya with other youths.

“I was shocked after reaching Libya. There was no place for us to stay. We did not have anything to eat. We were forced to survive on stale food for many days and the company we worked for did not pay us any money,” Gurpreet reportedly said.

“When we said that we wanted to go back to India, we were told by company officials that we had been sold to them for $3,000 each. We needed to pay them the $3,000 each for our freedom,” he added.

Lakhwinder Singh of Lang Majari said that he got a tourist visa for Dubai and was promised by an agent to get a job there.

When he reached there, the agent sent him to Libya, where he claimed that he had to work for a private contractor. He added that he got food irregularly and was beaten along with others.

Read all the Latest India News here