MP asks Centre to help locate Doaba men who went missing on way

The overseas minister said the Indian Embassy in Tripoli,the capital of Libya,had informed the ministry that these 20-odd men from Punjab had come to work here and proceeded towards Italy via sea route,stopping at a small island on the way. Though the matter was taken up by the Indian mission in Rome with the local authorities,but no information was provided,said the minister.

With no contact with these missing men for over two years now,their families in Punjab have been approaching human rights organisations and urging the Government of India to intervene in the matter and locate them.

The Indian Express had earlier reported that the families last heard from them in August 2008,when they were told that a travel agent called Kunwar was taking them to Italy and they had paid him Rs 80,000 to Rs 1 lakh each for the purpose.

LBP flays lifting of ban on immigration to Libya

The Lok Bhalai Party has criticised the Ministry of External Affairs for lifting the ban on immigration to Libya for jobs even as 500 men from Punjab,tricked by unscrupulous travel agents,are still stranded in that country. LBP senior vice-president Avtar Singh Mullanpuri said the Government of India had imposed the ban looking at the exploitation of workers from Punjab,adding that lifting of the ban would give unscrupulous travel agents another chance to dupe gullible youth in the name of getting them jobs in Libya. Mullanpuri said the LBP would announce further course of action if the stranded men were not brought back to India within 15 days.