'Rs 600 for 8 men': Jharkhand workers stranded in UAE, unpaid and facing eviction

With just ₹600 handed out to be split among eight starving men, and eviction hanging over their heads, a group of Indian migrant workers from Jharkhand are trapped in a nightmare in the United Arab Emirates. They haven’t received a salary in three months, their water supply has been cut, and now their landlord is preparing to throw them out.

Fifteen men from Hazaribagh and Giridih districts, who traveled to the UAE in January 2024 to work on transmission line projects, have been left to fend for themselves in Hamim, a remote area on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi. Hired by a Hyderabad-based utility contractor named Tirupati Reddy, the workers say the company has completely stopped paying them or covering rent, electricity, or basic needs.

“We were promised 1,700 dirhams a month (around ₹40,000), rent and utilities covered, and a stable job,” said Charuman Mahto, a seasoned migrant worker with prior stints in Kazakhstan, Malaysia, and Saudi Arabia. “But for the past three months, we’ve received nothing.”

As payments stopped, so did communication. Repeated calls and texts to contractor Reddy and his supervisor have gone unanswered. With no money, the men are now surviving on the goodwill of Bangladeshi workers nearby — even as their landlord cuts off utilities and demands they vacate their two-room shared accommodation.

“The heat is punishing. We cannot survive on the streets,” said Bishnu Mahto, 40. “Our families back in India are terrified for us.”

The crisis took a harsher turn when the men were handed a paltry ₹600 — to be divided among eight of them — by the contractor on one occasion. “We begged the landlord to let us stay a few more days,” said 28-year-old Arjun Mahto from Bishnugarh. “This is the only work we know, and now we’re being discarded like we don’t matter.”

Their desperate appeals reached Sikandar Ali, a migrant rights activist who is now coordinating with officials in India. “We’re urging the government to act fast. These men are in immediate danger,” Ali said.

Back home, the Jharkhand State Migrant Control Room (SMCR) has acknowledged the crisis. Its head, Shikha Lakra, confirmed that the Chief Minister’s Office has directed an urgent intervention. “We are working closely with the Ministry of External Affairs and the Indian Embassy in Dubai to bring the workers home safely.”

Despite the trauma, the stranded workers still cling to the dream that sent them abroad in the first place. “Foreign jobs let us save and support our families. That’s all we ever wanted,” said Charuman. “But this… this is no life.”