The Jharkhand government has written to the Indian embassy in Tajikistan, requesting it to expedite the safe return of migrant labourers from the state, who have been stranded in the central Asian country for the last several months, an official said on Friday.

The State Migrant Control Room (SMCR) under the Labour Department confirmed that 35 labourers from the state are stranded in Tajikistan, and it is in touch with them, he said.

"An e-mail to the Indian embassy in Tajikistan, on behalf of the labour department, has been sent on February 15, requesting to expedite the return of labourers to the state and a letter is also being sent today," Johnson Topno of SMCR told PTI.

Another official at the control room said the labourers had left for the central Asian country between October and December last year.

"Their main issue is that they are not getting their salaries and they want to return to their native place. We are verifying their claims,” he said.

Social worker Sikandar Ali, who brought the matter to the notice of the authorities, had said the stranded labourers alleged that their employer has seized their passports.

They also claimed that the company engaging them in laying power transmission lines there provided them with "scant food and no money at all".

The labourers, hailing from Hazaribag, Bokaro and Giridih districts, had left for the central Asian country last year after being promised handsome pay by agents of the firm operating in India, he had said.

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