Now, youths who returned from Libya claim they were sold for $3,000 each

Some of the youths on Tuesday also thanked the Ministry of External Affairs of India, who they claimed intervened at the right time and helped bring them back to their country.

As per details, all the youths had gone there to work as labour at the LCC Cement Company located in Benghazi, Libya. However, soon after reaching Libya they found that they had been sold to the company by their agent. The company, in turn the youths claimed, forced them to work for over 18 hours, sometimes without even giving them food or water.

Gurpreet Singh of Noorpur Rajput village, Kapurthala, who returned from Libya, said that he went to Dubai in December last year for a driver’s job. But as soon as he reached Dubai, he was sent to Libya along with several other youths.

“I was shocked after reaching Libya. There was no place for us to stay. We did not have anything to eat. We were forced to survive on stale food for many days and the company we worked for did not pay us any money,” said Gurpreet, adding that anyone who opposed was beaten up.

“When we said that we wanted to go back to India, we were told by company officials that we had been sold to them for $3,000 each. We needed to pay them the $3,000 each for our freedom,” he said.