Dubai, Oct 14 (TIWN) Forty-nine stranded Indian workers, who were employed in two Dubai-based carpentry firms, have been repatriated after authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) helped them secure their passports and security deposits, the media reported on Tuesday.

The expats were abandoned and unpaid for the last six months after two Dubai-based carpentry firms owned by Indians shut during the coronavirus pandemic without informing their staff, the Gulf News reported.  Left to fend for themselves, the expats reached out to the Indian Consulate in Dubai in July and sought help to return home.  “The workers had been in dire straits after the companies were shut and the Indian employer went unreachable. They had not been paid for about six months and they reached out to the consulate for help to return home,” Neeraj Agrawal, Consul for Press, Information and Culture, was quoted as saying in the report.