AP workers, employed at a cement plant in Angola and languishing without pay since February, were given exit passes to return to India, said N.V. Ramana Reddy, NRI Cell special secretary.
Around 1,200 workers from India, including 300 from AP, were living in deplorable conditions, denied their expenses for the months of February and March by the contractor, ETA Star International LLC, though the company was remitting the basic pay in their bank accounts.
The Angolan police had taken them into custody when they protested over this. An MEA representative said those Indian workers willing to return to the country were being given exit passes. CM N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, on May 14, wrote to foreign minister S.M. Krishna, seeking protection for the workers.