100 Indian workers suffering in US: Family

Up to 300 Indian workers, including 100 Keralites, are suffering under poor living conditions in the US after being allegedly cheated by a Mumbai-based recruitment firm which promised them Green Card and Permanent Residency Visa, family members of the workers claimed on Tuesday.

Pradeep, whose brother Sabulal Vijayan was among those cheated, said the workers, employed in a marine construction company, have filed a complaint in a local court in Mississipi.

Union Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi took up the matter and had also contacted relatives of some of the workers in Kerala, he said.

The recruitment agency, Dewan Consultancy, had advertised in 2006 for recruitment of Indian welders and pipe fitters for Signal International, the marine construction company, promising them Green Card and permanent residency visa.

The company had collected large sums of money. Vijayan had paid around Rs 8 lakh, Pradeep said. However, the workers on joining the company were provided with only a ten-month H2B visa, he alleged.

They were also made to live in poor conditions and 24 persons were accommodated in one room.

Sabulal was threatened when he started organising the other Indian workers against "denial" of human rights by the company, Pradeep said.

Family members of four other workers of the US company were also present at the press conference.