KATHMANDU: Dozens of migrant workers who returned home from restive Libya staged demonstrations on Sunday demanding adequate compensation from the recruitment agency that had sent them there.

Some 200 workers thronged SOS manpower company at Basundhara in the Capital on Sunday afternoon and chanted slogans demanding compensation from the recruitment agency as per the agreement reached with them earlier.

Last month, the government had rescued Nepali workers who had been stranded in the conflict-ridden Libya. However, many rescued workers rued that they were unable to go to their villages due to the lack of money.

Tension ran high on the company’s premises when the workers tried to padlock the office and stage a sit-in following the ‘promoters’ reluctance’ to fulfill their demands. Police resorted to baton-charge and apprehended at least 11 agitators to bring the situation under control.

The protesters flayed the police intervention in their ‘peaceful demonstration’ and demanded immediate release of the arrested.

“It is unfortunate that police were called up to quell our peaceful protest,” said Dwar Chandra Rai, a native of Khotang who returned home from Libya last month. “Police crackdown on the protest has added to our woes.”

Rai was one among 562 Nepali workers sent by SOS Manpower Company to Libya-based A-One Construction Company for Rs. 150,000. But the company stopped operation one-and-a-half-months before the massive uprising began, and did not provide perk and other facilities to the workers.

The company had reportedly assured the workers that it would provide them compensation on Sunday. “Instead of responding to our request, the promoters called the police to sweep us away. We were beaten black and blue,” said Dhan Bahadur Rai, another agitator.  The victims, most of whom hail from remote areas, had reached Libya paying hefty sums to the manpower company.

“I am not able to show up in my village in the fear that the money lenders will demand the loan that I had borrowed before going to Libya,” said Shanat Kumar Pokharel of Udayapur. The Rai duo also echoed similar problems.

Meanwhile, Som Lal Bataju, one of the directors of SOS Company, said the company was ready to provide partial compensation to the victims and would hold talks with the government to resolve the issue at the earliest.  “The compensation process got delayed in the absence of a minister to look into the migrant workers’ issues,” said Bataju. “The government should be held accountable for the present problem.”

Published on: 4 April 2011 | The Kathmandu Post