Three men died due to starvation, one committed suicide and 63 others have been allegedly held captive in a camp on the Melilla island — an autonomous Spanish city located on the Mediterranean sea on the north coast of North Africa. 

In a seven-page letter faxed to the office of Lok Bhalai Party on Saturday, these 63 men have narrated their miseries. The letter says they have not eaten anything for days, which resulted in the death of Sukhwinder Singh of Kapurthala, Buta Singh of Phagwara and Sonu Singh of Amritsar.

One Hardeep Singh of Patiala committed suicide while two others lost their senses, the letter claims. “We were kept in the Sahara desert for two years. We were mercilessly beaten up and kept like animals at different locations,” it reads.

Former Union social welfare minister and Lok Bhalai Party chief Balwant Singh Ramuwalia presented the parents of these 63 “captive” men in front of the media on Sunday. The parents said unscrupulous travel agents had lured them with jobs in Italy and Spain around seven years ago, charging Rs 6 lakh to Rs 7 lakh each. It took them two to three years to reach Melilla, where they have been spending days in captivity for the last four years, they said.

According to the letter, the agents had sent them to Ukraine first and then handed over to the agent mafia to illegally get them enter Spain and Italy through land route. They were taken through Europe into Africa. Their journey was cut short when they tried to reach Spain from Morocco. The group was caught in Melilla.

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