Two stranded Odia workers return home from Thailand

Bhubaneswar: Two Odia workers, Prasant Rout and Jasobanta Sahoo, stranded in Thailand following visa issues, were brought back safely to Bhubaneswar by the state govt on Saturday.Residents of Upei and Kujjipur villages in Kendrapara district, Rout and Sahoo overstayed their visas in Thailand, where they travelled along with four other workers in Aug last year to work in a plywood manufacturing factory.The other workers are Bijay Kumar Swain, Hemanta Kumar Behera, Jayanta Kumar Malik from Rajkanika block of Kendrapara district, and Manaranjan Sahu from Chandabali block of Bhadrak district. While all six travelled on tourist visas instead of work visas, those of Rout and Sahoo expired and they overstayed.Their return was facilitated by the Directorate of Odisha Parivar under the culture department. Chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi took to X and said their return was possible due to coordinated efforts of the ministry of external affairs, the resident commissioner of Odisha, and Odisha Parivar.The workers faced harassment at the hands of their employer — an Indian who owns the plywood factory — and, after failing to get their salaries on time, they released a video on social media pleading for help to return. They were promised Rs 25,000 (in Indian currency) as salary and 500 Baht as pocket money. While the pocket money was denied from Day 1, the salaries were either deducted or delayed on some ground or the other, Rout alleged.Four of the workers returned to Odisha a week back with the help of the state govt but Rout and Sahoo could not, as their visas had expired. “We approached the factory owner for facilitating the reissuance of our visas, and he said that he would look into it. But he never did,” Sahoo said.The two workers thanked the govt but pleaded for its intervention to get their pending salaries from the employer.