Three workers protested outside the Indian Embassy, in Adliya, yesterday to demand their passports back from their employer.

The Indians work for Kingdom Building and Painting Company and first approached the embassy three months ago.

"We first came to the embassy three months ago and lodged a complaint against our employer, who confiscated our passports," said one of the workers.

"Embassy officials promised they would follow with the sponsor and ask him to hand over our passports, but we are still waiting. They asked us to go last Sunday, but when we went, they told us to come back next week.

"We want our passports back and we are not going to stop coming to the embassy until we get them."

However, an embassy spokesman said their case was in the court, which meant the embassy was unable to help.

"The workers came to us three months ago with a complaint against their sponsor after he withheld their passports.

"We called the sponsor and he told us they had worked with him for 15 months and got an offer from another company. They went to Labour Market Regularity Authority and applied for mobility.

"They then brought an offer letter from another company and showed it to the employer, which is when the problem started.

"The sponsor was angry and refused to give them the passports. He asked them to sign a six-year contract, which is when the workers approached the embassy and we asked them not to sign the document.

"The employer is demanding BD1,000 from them and told us he would not give the passports as the workers cheated him.

"We are trying to help them, but they are still complaining about us. Their case was sent to the Urgent Matters Court and we hired a lawyer to represent them. We haven't asked them to come to the embassy every day, but said we will call them when we get a response from the court."