Dubai, August 20:

Exploitation by employers and recruiting agents may be leading to a dramatic increase in suicides by Indian workers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) this year.

In the past seven months 69 Indians workers committed suicide in the emirates, according to a Khaleej Times report. “Our observation is that lot of these people who committed suicide were mentally upset because when they left India they started with certain expectations as they were told the working conditions are good and they will get good pay,” Indian ambassador to UAE, Chandra Mohan Bhandari, said. “Once the labourers came to the UAE, they discovered they had been exploited by recruiting agents back home and their dreams would never come true with the difficult working conditions they had to face,” said Bhandari.

Often, these workers are frustrated by the very poor working conditions, including improper accommodation and lack of basic sanitation. Many a times the wor-kers live in overcrowded rooms with no air conditioners. The envoy said that Indian government has suggested to the UAE to fix a minimum wage for the unskilled Indian workers to ensure their security. There were about 1.3 million Indian workers in the UAE out of which 50 per cent are unskilled, 30 per cent semi-skilled and 20 per cent professionals.