Tomichan Francis will not forget that day when he was returning from another of his visits to the headquarters of CKG Constructions in the Libyan capital of Tripoli. The Libyan police stopped the SUV,which was doubling as public transport,since it was carrying more than the permitted load. They asked for my Pathaka the identity card everyone is expected to carry. Forget a Pathaka,I had not even seen my passport since landing in the country two years back, Tomichan said on Wednesday,sitting in the Press Room of the Kerala House. They asked the driver to take the vehicle to the nearest police post. Thankfully,he stopped at a lonely stretch on the way,and asked me to escape, he added,his voice choking. I ran till I fell. I would have been in jail otherwise. The jail imagery came up repeatedly in Tomichans speech. The last five months were worse than being in a jail. There,at least you know when you can leave, he said. The construction manager would assure every day for five months that the exit visa would be stamped and given to us the next day. Tomichan was among 10 Indians two Tamils and eight Keralites who returned to India on Wednesday from Libya empty-handed after two-and-a-half years of hardship there. They spent the last five months without a job. It turns out that the visa they were given when they left India in July-August 2007 was for three months. This,according to them,was never renewed. The agreement they had signed with the Indonesian construction company CKG was for two years. We were promised a labour visa and $ 450 a month when we left the country. Each of us paid Rs 60,000-Rs 70,000 to travel agency Al Zarafa Group for ticket and service charge, said Biju Thomas. However,CKG cut $ 600 from all our salaries over the first three months in the name of ticket charges. The first year we were paid the promised salary and got about 500 Dinars every month depending on the exchange rate, he added. Then,the recession hit Libya. We were then paid about once in three-four months. Then,as our two years drew to a close,we approached the company,asking for the salary defaults and return tickets, said Sijo. To-and-fro tickets were part of their two-year agreement with the company. They said that they were in no position to pay,and asked us to wait for some more time. So we worked extra two months without pay while we waited, Sijo said,adding that work stopped as the economy slowed down further. Trips then began to the Indian Mission and the CKG headquarters. It was after one of these visits that Tomichan had to run.
