Employees at RAK Ceramics and Al Masa porcelain called the Indian embassy in Khartoum a few weeks ago, pleading for help because they do not have money or a passport to exit from the country.
Salaries delayed, passport revoked, and money running out: life has been difficult for the 62 Indian nationals working for Nobles Group, one of Sudan’s leading ceramic tile makers since they arrived in the country.
Their issues worsened after the military takeover in October, when the business’s Sudanese owner, Muhammad Al-Mamoun, fled to the Middle East. The military government took control of the cooperation.
One of the company employees named Maruthi Ram Dandapani, said, “I haven’t received my salary for the past one year, and they don’t give us proper food to eat.” Other 25 people are working here, and none of us has received our salaries and proper food.
The same story has been playing out for months at the RAK Ceramics factory, owned by Nobles Group, in the Garri Industrial Area, now under the military-government rule.
For nearly a year, 41 Indian nationals working at this facility have gone without pay.
Not only has the corporation withheld their salaries, but it has also taken their passports and locked them in the company’s offices in Khartoum, citing corporate policy, preventing them from leaving Sudan.
A Karnataka resident, Raju Shetty, who came to Africa eight months ago, said, “when I first came here and started working here, one month passed, and we asked our general manager for the salary, she kept making excuses that they would give salary to us next month, then more time passed, Then after four-month we chased them, they paid us our one-month salary. Then two other months passed in discussions. They finally got ready and agreed to pay us, the coup incident happened. Then they make a new excuse that the government seized the property.”
The employees who were working there said that their families are financially independent of them if they are suffering. They are not suffering alone; their families are also suffering with them towards their bills and food.
The employee of RAK Ceramics and Al Masa porcelain factory unconsciously contacted the Indian embassy in Khartoum and, asking for help, demanded their passport back. They said it would happen. Two weeks ago, we spoke to the embassy again, but they said it would take some time, but they did not mention how long.
The lack of food and financial strain has impacted their mental and physical health. They also have anger towards their supervisor of the company, who mislead them.
