The great escape: Story of Lokesh Sapaliga who escaped from slavery in Malaysia

Mumbai: It was a second life for him when Lokesh Sapaliga (27) touched down in Mumbai on October 23. He had just cheated death as well as the monsters of oil rig where he was forcefully made to work round the clock in Malaysia. Sapaliga was sold into slavery in an oil rig after luring a well paid job in Malaysia.

Sapaliga’s ordeal began in September, when he chanced upon a job posting on a classifieds website. He had then been working in the Gulf as an electrician. The ad, posted by one Ram Support Service, a placement agency based in Nallasopara, promised a job on an oil rig in Kuala Lumpur.

The owner of the agency, Narendra Kumar Yadav, promised the Andheri resident a handsome pay of Rs 50,000 to Rs 60,000. Lured by the money, Sapaliga quit his job and came to Mumbai to speak to Yadav. “Yadav took Rs 1.7 lakh from me to arrange my visa, flight tickets and the continuous discharge certificate (CDC, a document required for someone who works on-board a ship). I boarded a flight on September 19 for Kuala Lumpur.

The owner of the agency, Narendra Kumar Yadav, promised the Andheri resident a handsome pay of Rs 50,000 to Rs 60,000. Lured by the money, Sapaliga quit his job and came to Mumbai to speak to Yadav. “Yadav took Rs 1.7 lakh from me to arrange my visa, flight tickets and the continuous discharge certificate (CDC, a document required for someone who works on-board a ship). I boarded a flight on September 19 for Kuala Lumpur. My visa had a proper stamp stating I was going to work on a ship, so there was no question of casting doubts upon the offer,” recalled Sapaliga. Unfortunately, there was.

Factory slave
Sapaliga’s nightmare began soon after he reached Malaysia. A guy called Rajkaran Verma, a sub agent welcomed him but not for the good. He stuffed Sapaliga into the boot of a car and sold him off to the Malaysian human trafficking mafia.The agents smuggled Sapaliga into a unit of CM Fibre Processing SDN BHD, a factory based in Sibu, Malaysia. On reaching there after a two-hour drive, the agents scooted off.

Sapaliga was shocked to see hundreds of labourers toiling in unhygienic and inhuman conditions for almost the entire day. Most were from India and Nepal; he was now one among them.

We worked for 14, 18 and even 20 hours a day for a paltry sum of Rs 400. My hands and legs used to go numb from exhaustion. Slaves who dared to complain were thrashed by the factory guards,” he recalled. In the few hours of respite workers got, they were accommodated in shipping containers.

Each ‘room’ had one fan, and 15-20 men competed for the little breeze that it threw their way. The mattresses were infested with bedbugs, and with a welding unit adjacent to the containers, it was nearly impossible to get any sleep. “We were also made to work night shifts without prior notice,” he added.

Hungry and broken
There was nary a day when the labourers got enough food. Sapaliga told mid-day that they were fed rice and sabzi three times a day, but it was never enough. Moreover, these were stale meals, with worms competing for the food on the plate. The plates were also never washed

To break the monotony, they would be served rice and rotten fish. But, everybody ate without complaining, for they wouldn’t get any food if they did. Sapaliga also says there was no safety equipment or access to medical facilities. “Slaves who worked near the furnace had no helmets or safety gloves. As a result, many got injured but there was no medical help.

There was a Punjabi man who had broken his hand in an accident, but they made him work. Another worker had also sustained severe burn injuries while working near the furnace,” he said. Sapalaga also suffered a head injury when an iron rod accidentally hit him.

The escape
Sapaliga worked in the fibre-processing unit from September 25 to October 20. Realising that he wouldn’t last long there, with great difficulty, he bribed some men and made a phone call to his brother-in-law, Prakash Karkera, in Mumbai.

On hearing of his kin’s suffering, Karkera landed straight at the office of the placement agency located in Solan Amit Shopping Centre, Nallasopara. The owner, Yadav, assured Karkera that his brother-in-law would be safe and back to India soon.

“Yadav threatened me that if I went to the police or the media, he would get Lokesh killed with the help of his connections in Malaysia,” Karkera told this paper. However, the family continued to pressurise Yadav to bring Lokesh back, issuing threats of police complaints. It worked.

Verma, the Indian sub-agent, called up Sapaliga and told him they couldn’t do much until he fled from the factory. Caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, Sapaliga took the risk and, in the wee hours of October 21, escaped from the unit while others were asleep.

“The factory is surrounded by a jungle. It was pitch dark and I somehow reached the highway, where I met Verma and his two associates. They had my passport and visa. Before I left for the airport, they made be sign an agreement stating that I was offered the job I desired by the placement agency and that I held no grouse against them.

I had to sign the document, or else they would’ve torn my passport and visa,” he said. The men dropped him to Sibu airport, from where he took a flight to Kuala Lumpur. A day’s halt later, he boarded a flight to Mumbai. On November 5, he lodged a complaint with the Nallasopara police. He had also clandestinely managed to document his experiences on his cellphone camera.

Inspired by Lokesh Sapaliga’s flight to freedom, another Indian has managed to get away from the clutches of the human trafficking mafia in Malaysia. But, he bears grim news there are two dozen Indian seamen trapped in a factory, who are being made to toil in inhuman conditions, without proper food or accommodation.

Now, Punjab-based Narender Singh (22), about whom Sapaliga had spoken, has also managed a brave escape. He, however, is at a friend’s place in Malaysia and hasn’t been able to come back to India. Sapaliga had managed to capture Narender’s plight on his phone camera.

Sapaliga’s escape had given everybody hope. On Friday morning, Singh decided enough was enough. Like Sapaliga, he waited till everyone was asleep. It was raining cats and dogs, and the factory is in the middle of a jungle.

Against all odds, with a broken hand, Singh climbed a hill in pitch darkness and reached the other side. He managed to hail a bus and reached a friend’s place 500 kilometres away from the factory. According to Singh, a native of Noor Purvedi village in Ropar, Punjab, more than 24 Indian workers are trapped as slaves in the factory. All of them were lured with the promise of a seaman’s job on a ship.