‘Stranded’ Indians in Angola being brought back – report

Indian workers allegedly held captive in a cement factory near Sumbe town of Angola in Africa are safe and those willing to return home are being brought back, Khaleej Times reports.

Shaktisinh Gohil, Congress MLA and leader of the opposition in Gujarat, told the newspaper that the Ministry of External Affairs had on Tuesday contacted the Angolan ambassador and the country’s government following which, he claimed, the seven-day crisis had ended. Gohil said he and Ahmed Patel, Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat and political secretary to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, had taken up the matter with the ministry, adding that all the labourers who had fled to nearby forests after violent incidents at the factory on 9 May were back at the site.

The workers had begun protests following the employers’ refusal to accept their demand for overtime payment in US dollars following a 24-day strike. According to Gohil, even those whose passports were with the company or the immigration department would be able to return to India after obtaining an ‘emergency certificate’ from the Angolan authorities.