By Ben Garcia

KUWAIT: A group of Indian workers living in Mahboula lodged a complaint by sending emails to the labor office at the Indian Embassy in Kuwait and Kuwait Times over non-payment of salaries since March. According to the letter addressed to the embassy, there has been no communication by the company since March with 15 Indian workers who were hired to man two restaurants in Ardiya and Mahboula.

“We humbly and respectfully regret to say that we are 15 Indians living in Mahboula block 1 working in a burger restaurant company. For the last 2-1/2 months, we are not receiving any salary and till now we have five staff whose visas have expired. The restaurant owner doesn’t reply our messages and calls. The management keeps on ignoring us,” read their letter to the embassy and Kuwait Times.

“We are all going through tough and harsh conditions because we all have no money and no food as well. I hope you can help us so that our company will help us in this predicament,” a worker named Khader told Kuwait Times. He said the problem is that despite several attempts to call the management for help, there has been no reply so far. “We are surviving because fellow Indians living next door are providing us with something, like food, etc. They also share our problems with the Indian community,” he added.

Another complainant said he hopes the Indian Embassy will be able to help them. “We don’t know how long our friends will be able to provide for us and feed us. What we want is for the embassy to convince our company to pay us or at least send us some food so we can survive this curfew,” he said. The Indian Embassy did not respond to inquiries by Kuwait Times on this matter.