After 17 youths were successfully repatriated from Libya by the Indian embassy in Tunisia, the External Affairs Minister of India, Subramaniam Jaishankar, on August 21, 2023, appreciated the embassy’s efforts and said that the Modi government strengthening of the Indian Community Welfare Fund is particularly good on such occasions.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Jaishankar said, “Good Work, India in Tunisia. Modi’s government strengthening of the Indian Community Welfare Fund is particularly useful on certain occasions.”
The embassy of India in Tunisia successfully repatriated 17 Indians from Punjab and Haryana on August 19, 2023, who were detained in the North African Nation of Libya since February this year. They were in Libya because of travel agents who dumped them on the pretext of sending them to Italy.
The Incident
The men who were the victims in this incident were among many who left India between February and April of this year with the hopes of landing jobs in Italy. All of them acquired work visas and permits through travel agents. Most of them came from agricultural backgrounds whose families had sold whatever land and property they had to fund their future.
Little did they know that they had been duped and were sent on a “donkey route” a term used to refer to the illegal and highly dangerous method hundreds of people undertake to reach the Western Countries.
After being duped by the travel agents, the men were first taken to Dubai, then to Egypt and finally sold by their agent in Zuwara, Libya, to a local group. At each stop along the route, the agents demanded more money in lieu of taking them to the next country. Each victim ended up losing Rs 12 to Rs 15 lakhs in the process.
“I was first sold to a man in Dubai, said Paramjeet Singh while giving his statement to the police present at the airport. He used to beat me very badly. He then sold to another man in Libya.” Singh recalled while showing the picture of his trafficking to the authorities. The other victims gave the name of middlemen and agents to the police.
Within the first few days of landing in Libya, the men informed their families that they were stuck and unable to escape. Rahul Sharma, aged 33, was the first to establish contact with the Indian Embassy in Tunisia. While In Libya, they were allegedly being tortured and made to do unpaid labour for months.
The Evacuation
The Indian Embassy at Tunis played a key role in the evacuation of these Indians. The case was brought to the attention of the Indian Embassy in Tunisia on May 26, 2023, by the family members of the stranded Indian nationals. The Indians were held in Zwara City.
The Rajya Sabha MP Vikramjit Singh Sawhney, on August 21, 2023, played an important role in their evacuation. He contacted these youths and, later, the Ministry of External Affairs and wrote letters to these men to get out of Libya, after which he contacted the Ambassador of the Embassy of India and asked him to bring these men to India.
With the help of the Embassy and the UN, Sawhney’s office managed to gain counsellor access to the men in jail. The men were finally released on July 30, along with a few more Indian men who had been jailed in the same place.
On the social media account X, Vikramjit Singh Sawhney, on August 21, 2023, asked Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Chief Minister of Haryana Manohar Lal Khattar to take immediate action against agents who had defrauded these youths who planned to go to Italy but were then sent to Libya.
“With the blessings of the Akalpurakh Waheguru, we spearheaded the evacuation of 17 youths of Punjab and Haryana from the gallows of death in Libya, where unscrupulous agents duped them after taking thirteen lakh rupees each,” he said
