Thirty-five labourers hailing from Mahishbathani Gram Panchayat under the Malda police station have been illegally detained and are being tortured in Malaysia, sources have said.

It is also being alleged that the group of workers have been going on without proper food for the past two-anda- half months, and that they cannot be repatriated for some legal hurdles put forth by their recruiters.

The families of these men have sought help from the Member of Parliament, North Malda, Mausam Noor, who had sent a letter to the Union Minister for External Affairs, Sushma Swaraj, last month with a detailed list of the laborers with their passport numbers.

The families communicate with their near ones through the Indian embassy in Malaysia, it is learnt.

This development, which comes close on the heels of Malda labourers being killed in other states in India, has once again brought to fore the safety of workers in foreign lands. “Our food was stopped after we protested non-payment of wages, while, despite the inhuman conditions here, we have failed to contact our relatives. Some locals helped us and made us talk to our dear ones almost after 15 days recently. The company is creating legal hurdles and barring our return to India,” Aliul Sheikh, a labourer who is originally from Borkol village, said over telephone from Malaysia.

The person responsible for sending these laborers to the foreign country, Rejaul Hoque, who is the former Pradhan of Mahishbathani Gram Panchayat, said, “The 35 men includes my own brother and son-in-law. This was the second time I had sent workers there as there was no issue in the first phase, but I could never think that my men will have to face problems like these. I talked to the Indian embassy there on Wednesday and they are confident of sending them back in two phases soon.”

According to sources, a Chennai-based company took 10 workers from this Gram Panchayat through Hoque at first to Malaysia for work on mobile towers.

Initially, everything was fine with the Malaysian company there, so another 25 were sent there later. However, it was alleged that things started falling apart.

Payments and food to the laborers began irregular and physical torture was the answer to any protest. “As per their information, the laborers have already been brought to the embassy and will be soon repatriated.

These are highly unfortunate incidents being faced by workers from the district in other states and other countries,” Ms Noor said.