17 Indian women cheated in Albania return home

PANAJI: Seventeen of the 20 Indian women working in Albania who had sought help from the government, alleging they were duped by their employer and dumped in a dark room without food and water have returned to India.
Commissioner of NRI affairs, Eduardo Faleiro, told media persons that, "As we do not have an embassy in Albania, I contacted the secretary and joint secretary in charge of Central Europe in our ministry of external affairs.They informed me that the matter concerns a group of 20 women and 17 of them were repatriated by the government of India".
He said that the 17 women left Tirana, the capital of Albania, last Friday and arrived in Mumbai on Saturday via Istanbul. "Three women did not want to return home and preferred to stay in Albania. The ministry could not immediately identify the Goans among the returnees," said Faleiro. They were hired on a contract by a bag manufacturing firm in Berat, Albania. The group of 20 workers includes eight from Goa, five from Kerala and the rest from Mumbai and Chennai. They reached Albania on April 19.
The family members of the women had approached Kerala's opposition leader Oommen Chandy to help get union minister for overseas Indian affairs Vayalar Ravi and minister of state for external affairs E Ahamed to intervene in the issue. "I have been told that the women were recruited by an agent from Goa. But so far we don't know who this agent is. We have also not received any complaint. We ensure appropriate action against the culprits," said Faleiro.
The women at the interview were promised a minimum salary of $200 plus overtime (for making bags). On reaching they found out that they had been cheated. They were made to work nine-hour shifts and given a short lunch break. They were told that they would get their promised salary only if they achieved the target of 7,100 bags a day. But as they could make just 2,500 bags a day, they were paid only $2 per day.
Faleiro said that they would soon form a government committee that would monitor whether the investigations into alleged cases of cheating by travel agents who double as recruiting agents without proper permissions are done correctly and speedily. "So far we have 20 cases pending with the police and there has not been a single conviction," said Faleiro.