Warehouse horror for Lankans in Iraq

Iraq: Iraqi guards opened fire above the heads of 1,000 migrant workers who staged a mini-riot yesterday in protest at their poor treatment in Baghdad and the prospect of being sent home without pay.

The men, from Bangladesh, Nepal, India and Sri Lanka, will be flown to Dubai after the Kuwaiti company that hired them failed to secure enough contract work at dining facilities inside a number of US military bases across Iraq.

Their passports have also been taken.

"People are getting shot at," said Manoj Kodithuwakku, a 28-year-old from Sri Lanka, speaking to The Times by mobile phone. The crack of bullets could be heard in the

background. "It is pandemonium in here," he said.

The men were flown to Baghdad over the past three months to work for Najlaa International Catering Services, which is a subcontractor to Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR), a major service provider to the US Department of Defence.

Each paid up to $3,000 (2,000) to middlemen on the promise of work as soon as they arrived. The jobs never materialised. Instead the men are kept inside three, large warehouses surrounded by walls in a secured zone around Baghdad airport.

Most gave their passports yesterday to officials from the company following assurances that they would be used facilitate the payment of wages to their families rather than to insert exit visas.

By the morning, however, workers said there was no evidence that any money had been dispatched and there was no sign of their passports.

In addition, five buses were parked outside the compound, prompting fears that Najlaa was preparing to send them home.

Marwan Rizk, chief executive officer of Najlaa, confirmed this suspicion.

"They are being demobilized to their respective countries," he told The Times. "It is because some contracts have basically vanished or been rescinded."

Anger at the situation erupted when two men, described as Iraqi immigration officials, visited the compound. As they left one of the migrant workers lobbed a water bottle in their direction, prompting others to start chucking stones.

A Najlaa manager was also beaten in the foray, prompting Iraqi security guards, who secure the warehouses, to open fire, shooting into the air, according to a number of migrant workers.

"I saw them shoot with my own eyes," said Sampath Fernando. "As soon as that happened I ran. Nobody was killed and no one was injured in the shooting." He said that a couple of the workers had cuts on their heads after being accidentally caught in the firing line of the stones.