About 100 workers from the Andhra Pradesh lodged in a jail in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, have allegedly starved. According to information, Saudi jail authorities have not been serving food to Indian prisoners, many of whom are poor workers from Andhra Pradesh who had gone to Saudi Arabia for employment. Most of them had left their employers after being duped of their salaries and the nature of work they were supposed to do and had subsequently landed in jail, as they did not have their passports which had been withheld by their employers. “The treatment in jail is inhuman. The food served is not sufficient. I have received information that jail authorities have not been providing food since Saturday,” said Mr Urugonda Rajendra Prasad, who returned to his native Sircilla after being released from the Jeddah jail on Thursday. Mr Prasad was one of the three Indian prisoners recently released, the other two being Mr Santosh Kumar Soni from Uttar Pradesh and Mr Dastagir from Kadapa.

The migrant labour rights activist, Mr P. Narayana Swamy, who contacted some of the inmates over telephone, said that about 730 Indians were languishing in Saudi jails and the Indian embassy hadn’t done anything yet. Releasing a list of 32 prisoners from AP along with their passport numbers, Mr Swamy said, “When I contacted the Indian embassy they gave a vague reply.” If there are five people in a jail, they have to share from a plate that just has food for one, said Mr Prasad.