KATHMANDU: As many as 29 Nepali youths who had gone to Saudi Arabia for employment have been stranded there.

The men had gone to work in the Gulf country five months ago, on February 13. It is said that each of them got only 900 Saudi Riyals since they started working. The employyes refused to work when the salary did not concur with the contract documents. Consequently, their employer company expelled them.

According to Bunadevi Bishwakarma, the assistant counsellor at Safer Migration Project (SaMi)'s information centre at Diktel, among the expelled youths stranded in Saudi Arabia, 14 are from Khotang district, three from Sindhuli, two each from Sarlahi, Makawanpur and Dailekh, and one each from Bhojpur, Ramechhap, Dadeldhura, Kailali, Myagdi and Baglung, Rastriya Samachar Samiti reported.

They went to the Gulf country through Empower Overseas Pvt Ltd, a recruiting agency based in Mitra Park, Chabahil in Kathmandu. According to their contract, they had been sent to work in catering at Sonmar Constructing Trading and Advertising Company in Saudi Arabia.

"The company expelled the Nepali workers on Monday when they refused to go to work in protest against non-payment of their salary. The company threw our bags and belongings out on the road," Bishwakarma quoted Sheshan Shrestha of Jalpa, one of the victims, as telling her on the phone.

Meanwhile, the expelled men have urged the information centre and other related bodies to take initiatives for their immediate rescue.