Around 1,200 Indian workers, including about 450 from the state, are being held prisoner at a factory near Sumbe in Angola, West Africa, after they protested for payment of their salaries. Four of them have reportedly sustained bullet injuries. Around 250 workers at the plant are from Srikakulam and Vizainagaram districts and 50 from Hyderabad, while the others come from the rest of the state.
The workers were injured when police opened fire after they went on a protest on May 9 over the non-payment of salaries since February by their employer, ETA Star International and the FPKS Company in Angola. They reportedly resorted to violence and set some vehicles on fire, after which the company owner called in the police. The company held them captive after they refused to work unless the pending salaries were paid. One of them, Paramanand Behara, said, “Some are being held hostage while some ran into a nearby forest. They don’t have food and water.”
Rajeshwar Goud from Hyderabad, who has been working at the plant for a year, said the government should work for their release. CPI state secretary K. Narayana asked Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy to get the Centre to intervene and secure the release of the workers. “We spoke to some of them over the phone. They are facing visa issues to return to India. The state government has to react,” said Mr Narayana.