(Trinidad Guardian) Sitting in their Macoya apartment, a worried-looking Dinesh Chand Jatav, left, and his friends Jagdish Mali and Babulal Jatav, right, want to return to India after claiming they were part of a human trafficking ring for 17 months orchestrated by a Tunapuna businessman.

One week after tabling the Trafficking of Persons Bill in Parliament, three nationals of India who came to Trinidad in search of a better life have come forward claiming they are victims of a human trafficking ring. The ring was unearthed by Manju Verma, an India national living in Trinidad. Desperate to get Dinesh Chand Jatav, 29, Jagdish Mali, 36, and Babulal Jatav, 29, out of Trinidad, Verma is calling on Foreign Affairs Minister Suruj Rambachan and India Commissioner to T&T Malay Mishra for assistance, stating that this crime was against humanity.

Verma was touched by the men’s plight, having experienced a similar fate. She is also appealing to the police to investigate the Tunapuna businessman behind the trafficking, stating if left unchecked, more foreign labourers would be duped and exploited. Verma said the businessman was in the habit of seizing passports of foreign labourers as well as exploiting, threatening and abusing them.

Cleaning toilets were also part of their chores. On November 17, 2009, the men along with Jamana Lal of Jaipur, a poverty-stricken district in India came to Trinidad.

An advertisement in one of India’s newspapers seeking skilled males in granite and marble fabrication for three years in Trinidad was what lured the men to apply for the position. After being screened, the men were accepted and offered $2,700 (TT) monthly, plus a $3,500 apartment which the businessman promised to pay for until their contract of three of the four men expired in 2012. The men were each asked to pay a bond of $30,000 rupees, equivalent to $5,000 (TT), which they were loaned in India and had to repay with interest during a six-month period upon taking up the jobs. Upon completion of the job, the businessman promised to repay the bond in India.