Indian docs in Nigeria say passports snatched, salaries denied
Authorities at the hospital — a branch of Primus Super Specialty Hospital in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi — in Nigeria’s capital Abuja admitted that the doctors’ passports had been kept at the time they joined for “safety purposes”, but denied any “wrongdoing”. They confirmed that they had received a show-cause order issued by the Nigerian court.
The doctors — Neeraj Singh, consultant in pathology, and Amit Bali, consultant in anaesthesia — signed two-year contracts with the hospital in February, and joined work in March. Both, however, resigned in September.
While the doctors declined to speak, a copy of an appeal filed by Bali to the MEA and the Indian high commissioner’s office in Abuja on November 8, says: “The management of the hospital took away my... passport... a few days after we landed in Abuja, which was never returned...” The letter adds that Bali hasn’t received his salary for three months. In his resignation letter, Singh said, “The salary is not even paid...I have been recruited into modern slavery.”
Achla Dewan, chairperson of Primus Hospitals, said: “We take the passports of employees as a routine safety measure, since the hospital facilitates their visa applications and immigration. We are responsible for them here...” Dewan added that on November 16, the doctors’ passports had
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