Should stranded expat workers be sent home?

I read an article earlier this week which has left me disturbed. It was written by a well-read business magazine in the Middle East. I'm presuming the story was carried by other media as well. My issue is not with the newspaper nor with the article itself – it’s with the ethos that we seem to have developed regarding the expat labourers in the Gulf countries.

The article quoted an unnamed representative of a local labour ministry as saying that companies should not put employees in a dire situation by keeping them in the country if they can’t pay their salaries. These companies should repatriate their workers to their home country so that they don’t incur any fines for overstaying their labour permits.

Does it make sense to send these poor people home without their pay just so that it becomes someone else's problem now? How about the labour ministry forcing the companies to pay these workers their dues and then sending them back – wouldn’t that be a fairer solution?

The poor workers have left home, crossed seas to build your infrastructure (and to earn money). They have trusted the entire system – the employer, the receiving country’s government, the sending country’s governments, and the myriad of agents involved – in coming here. Therefore it’s only fair that all of us work together to protect this trust. The only way the trust will be protected is if these people are paid before being sent back.

All businesses go through good and bad times. But not paying your employees – your working family – their salaries is simply preposterous. Once they leave the country there's virtually no way for them to recover the lost funds, even if the company recovers and starts to pay the salaries after some time. The logistics of getting the funds overseas are too huge for any company to go through. Instead of sending the workers back for good, why not send them back on unpaid leave with an internationally recognised IOU note?

In Saudi Arabia we recently had a similar issue where the Indian Embassy had to set-up canteens to supply food to the stranded workers. However, all the good will that the Indian Embassy had built up was negated by them issuing a deadline to the stranded workers to return home – without their dues - or else they were on their own.

Governments of all countries have to work together to ensure that these workers are not abused any more than they already are through the unethical recruitment practises that go on. There has to be a way for the workers to be paid their salaries on time, accurately, every time. Without this, basic trust in the labourers mind will be eroded resulting in fewer workers travelling overseas on work – as is already happening.  

How would you reduce or prevent such issues from happening in the first place?