A Bangladeshi electrician who worked for his Kuwaiti employer for 14 years has been stranded in Kuwait for the last 27 months without work or pay. During this time , he has repeatedly attempted to solve his labor dispute with his former employer, enlisting the help of his embassy, Kuwait's Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor and even his own country's labor ministry, but there have been no positive developments and he remains stuck in limbo.

I really want to go back home, but I cannot leave because my residency has expired and I don't want to leave without taking my rightful dues," the worker, 45-year old Khokan Syed Ahmed, told the Kuwait Times yesterday. Ahmed explained that his predicament began when he asked to be released from his contract in mid-2009; the company employing him not only refused his request, however, but deliberately stopped paying his wages.

My boss told me to submit a resignation letter instead. At that time, I thought that if I submitted my resignation, I'd be waiving my 14 years indemnity so I didn't submit any letter, but that was the start of my suffering." Ever since then, he said, despite his continuing to work, the company has "stopped depositing any salary in my account.

Ahmed revealed that after seven months of waiting patiently [for the release form] and without being paid any salary, Khokan finally decided to lodged a complaints at the MSAL's Labor Dispute Department, known as the 'Shuon.' When he did so, however, his employers "got even more mad at me and harassed me every day for doing that. I went to Ahmadi's Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, but they haven't done anything either.

The cheated worker further claimed that the owner of the company he works for had been using 'wasta' (influence/nepotism) with officials at the MSAL office to keep Ahmed in this miserable limbo and ensure that his complaints are disregarded. "The Shuon informed me that my case has no probable reason to proceed so they abandoned it and left me hanging just like that," he lamented. Ahmed further explained that his employer's intractability has left him staying in the country illegally for the past 14 months
, while working for no pay.

I'm afraid they'll put me in jail if the immigration police found about me [being illegal] here," Ahmed told the Kuwait Times. The ill-treated worker also went to the Bangladeshi Embassy in Khaifan, but received no help there either, "Our embassy here seems not to care about us; they offered no solution," he said. "They just told me to give them my papers, but they have done nothing.

The dejected worker said that a family member in Bangladesh had submitted a complaint on his behalf at the labor ministry in his country, but this had been greeted with similar indifference. Ahmed, whose wife and children are back home in Bangladesh, wishes simply to get the money he is owed and return home: "I want to go home and be reunited with my family," he said. "For the last year, I managed to survive with the help of friends, but I cannot be this way for the rest of my life. I want my case to be r
esolved. I want my 27 months' salary, my 14 years' indemnity and I want to leave Kuwait," he concluded.