Languishing in war-torn Libya for 9 years, NRI’s rescue cry goes unheard

Sunday Special

By Deepak Parvatiyar & Venkatesh Raghavan 

Even PM Narendra Modi’s emissaries could not secure justice for Sanjeev 

Can the change in guard in Libya following a United Nations’ initiative change the fortunes of Sanjeev Dhari Sinha – a Bihari professor languishing in trouble torn Libya since 2011?

Sanjeev, an assistant professor of English language, had been teaching English in Libya in two Universities  – Tripoli University and Elmergib University . But then he was not paid his due salary by the Ministry of Education of Libya and was also not given visa authorisation by the Libyan government for every year of his stay. His stay though in Libya is legal since August 30, 2014 as per the Government Decree 2014 to 2017 and thereafter, his joining order for 2017 – 18  (season )by the Deputy Minister of Education for the continuation of the same job. This was further renewed for 2019- 20. However, thereafter, his stay there is rendered illegal from September 20, 2020 till date as the government has not yet issued him the residence visa despite the order of a committee headed by the Libyan Education Minister Dr. Mohammed Amari Zayed to this effect.  

“I’m still an assistant professor since 2009.  On the basis of 4 articles submitted to Tripoli University in 2017, I should be given the position of associate professor even if I go back without salary. But with visa I can claim salary even after 5 years and become a professor,” he told globalbihari.com from Tripoli.

He pleaded that his message should be conveyed to Indian Ministry of External Affairs and Indian Ambassador in Tunisia so that his visa could be secured.

With the new UN-backed interim government at the helm in Libya from this month, Sanjeev said that it was important to inform the new interim Prime Minister of the country Abdul Hamid Mohammed Dbeibeh, about his travails and the injustice that was meted out to him there. That he needed to be compensated for his ordeals too and that he was never given air tickets as per the contract since 2013.

Also read: Making history, UN-led forum selects new interim leadership in search of peace in Libya

The civil war in Libya had complicated his case but not the one to easily give up, Sanjeev all these years fought his own battle while braving all odds in a foreign country all alone, seeking justice and even demanding compensation for his human rights violation  and even demanding compensation for his human rights, and for the violation of the UNESCO Convention.

The revolution had started in Libya on  February 17, 2011. Sanjeev was obdurate even when India evacuated all its citizens from war torn Libya in March 2011, and refused to leave till his dues were cleared. However, he returned to India when he lost his mother on November 20, 2011. He had gone there with the written permission of Head, Dean and President of Tripoli University. That year his salary increased by reducing tax from 20 % to 3 % . He was given the job offer from 2011- 12 and return visa was given but his 2010- 11 salary was in bank there. However, his job was terminated without any notice when he went to India to perform her last rites. “I had lost my mother and job as well along with all salary of 2010-11,” he said.

At that time (in 2011) he approached former Union Minister from Bihar Rajeev Pratap Rudy, who wrote to Minister Oversee Affairs and to Indian Embassy in Tripoli  to arrange his visa. Another politician, and Member of Parliament from Khagaria in Bihar, Choudhary Mehboob Ali Kaiser wrote to International Labour Organisation and Indian Ministry of External Affairs that no country had the right to grab salary.

The Libyan Embassy New Delhi was not working till March 2012 and thereafter, Sanjeev alleged, they wanted money for Visa. Finally he could return to Libya only after two month of regular “sitting in” at Libyan Embassy in New Delhi. He was reinstated on July 29, 2012 and was provided a re-entry visa on his tourist visa. Things looked rosy and he joined the Faculty of Education and was  given 11 subjects to teach in 2012- 13, and 2013- 14.

However, two days after the Tripoli airport was bombarded on  July 13, 2014 , his job was terminated once again without any notice. The same was  the case in 2011. This time though, the  Head and Dean of his University were going to India for their Ph.D. and they  told him to accompany them and sought to assure him that once they finished their Ph.D. they would take care of this salary of 2012 – 13 and from 2013 to 2014.

“I did not go with them to India and joined the same college where I was working between 2009 and 2011 in the faculty of Arts,” Sanjeev said, and added that it was decided that the termination letter will be withdrawn by the new Dean of Faculty of Education.

He took examination in the Faculty of Arts for 2014- 15 but his contract was not signed till December. In January a new committee of college staff recommended his name to the University but again on March 15, 2015, another committee was set up by Tripoli University, which was formed by the President of Tripoli University to take his fresh interview for 2015-16.

“After completing my assignment in 2014- 15, I wanted to go to  India but I was told that I have to go on exit visa of 2014. (In Libya, exit visa is a must. Furthermore, it’s required as per Foreign Exchange Management Act in India every year). When I asked them about my payment, the university staff told me that I’ll get the payment after my return from India. They sought to assure me that I won’t face any problem in getting the visa at Libyan Embassy in New Delhi.”

Sanjeev, however, decided to stay back in Libya as he had two bad experiences of salary grabbing in 2011 and 2014.

Worse! On January 12, 2016 he lost his father but could not attend his funeral. He could get the ID from his college, where he was then working as a part timer,  only on the day his father died. “They delayed in handing over to me my contract letter. If they had given that to me on time, and allowed me to go, I could have seen my father.He was waiting for me,” he said.

Having undergone the vicissitudes of life, Sanjeev seems a shaken man: “I would be grateful if you kindly help me to get my regular visa certificate of past first and current residence and 4 months leave in lieu of previous summer vacation which I could not avail after 2013 as per order of Deputy Minister Dr. Abu Baker Nwir dated 4.11.2019.”

Sanjeev’s story is unbelievably stunning. Here was a professor, who also represented India in sports in Asian Games and University Olympics, who was cheated in Libya and who decided to fight for his honour and dignity in a war zone where India had even closed down its embassy!

Today he is seeking help citing the UNESCO recommendation concerning the status of higher-education teaching personnel in 1997 (para. 58), which mandates that the salaries of higher-education teaching personnel should be paid regularly and on time. He also refers to Article 12 of the ILO Protection of Wages Convention, 1949 (No. 95), which Libya ratified and mandated that wages shall be paid regularly….(and) upon the termination of a contract of employment, a final settlement of all wages due shall be effected in accordance with national laws or regulations, collective agreement or arbitration award or, in the absence of any applicable law, regulation, agreement or award, within a reasonable period of time having regard to the terms of the contract.

Sanjeev had residence visa for Libya only for three months in 2017 but then he did not have visa from August 30, 2014 till June 5, 2017. Thereafter, he got two re-entry in 2018 – one by Tripoli University and another by Elmergib University –  without residence visa. The Indian Embassy in Tunisia rejected it and said it was illegal visa since it was without residence visa.

Sanjeev claimed while there is no Indian embassy in Tripoli now,  when it was working even then it did not write exact place of work when he joined Elmergib University by the order of Deputy Minister of Education dated  May 20, 2018 in the 2017- 18 season. Earlier too, he said, they did not mention the Decree of Ministry of Labour and Education for 2014- 17  season in any letter as a continuation of same job at Elmergib University under the same Ministry of Education.

For nine long years, Sanjeev has unsuccessfully knocked all doors for justice, and in the process undergone a very tough situation. In 2018, he even suffered from multiple organ failure which necessitated his hospitalisation. That he could come out of it only speaks volumes about his grit and determination in face of an unusually hostile situation that he has been facing all these years. It is quite interesting to note that when he fell terribly sick, he managed to get help from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who took note of a tweet by Sanjeev’s sister Ruby, and acted.

This is about my younger brother, an assistant professor in Libya where he is currently stranded due to multiple organ failure. He needs the government’s help to get back alive as his passport and visa have been seized. @SushmaSwaraj @MEAIndia @PMOIndia @narendramodi pic.twitter.com/l6rIwKU80h

— Ruby Sinha (@Rubysinha42) February 22, 2018

“My brave sisters Rashmi and Ruby who respectively live in Noida and Mumbai, arrived in Libya with the permission of the Prime Minister and the then MEA, late Sushma Swaraj, as flying to Libya was banned then. They met the Interior Minister there, who promised that my salary and visa problem will be solved. The Minister also spoke to the president of Tripoli University and wrote 20 letters for my visa for 2014 to 2017 but then still I was not given the job and visa for 2018.

He said that on May 8, 2018, Indian minister Kiren Rijiju too had promised in a video that the latter posted on his Facebook, that visa will be arranged for him. But, according to Sanjeev, the Indian ministers were misled about the true situation prevailing in Libya.  

It is obvious that the Libyan government is privy to Sanjeev’s ordeal in their country. But the political turmoil in the war-ravaged country has turned out to be a spoiler. On September 29, 2019 the then Education Minister of Libya, Othman  Abdul Jalil, had given a 74-page record of two universities to the Legal Committee of Ministry Of Education (MOE), Libya and the Legal Committee had made a recommendation on December 25, 2019 that Sanjeev was now in Elmergib university and his due was not clear from Tripoli University along with visa.

But soon thereafter Othman resigned as minister and Sanjeev’s hopes were once again dashed. He was trapped in what seemed a never-ending bureaucratic quagmire. On August 26, 2019, Dr. Taher Bin Taher, Director in MOE, Libya had written to Tripoli and Elmergib University to clear Sanjeev’s visa and salary, but to no avail!

In 2019, a new Ambassador joined the Indian embassy in Tunisia and after going through all the papers, on April 13, 2020, he wrote a letter to Dr. Mohammed Amari Zayed, the new Libyan Minister of Education who had replaced Othman. Following this, a 5-member committee was constituted by Zayed which submitted its report in June 2020. But then, as Sanjeev claims, the minister did not do the required follow up based on the recommendation of the report.

“We are aware of Sanjeev’s peculiar case, but things have not been moving much,” a senior official at MEA, New Delhi, told globalbihari.com in response to a query.

Obviously, when Sanjeev had decided to stay back in Libya in 2011, little had he anticipated that he would be as a hostage there for so long.  He was left behind in Libya amidst a high degree of uncertainty over the country’s political future besides the Indian embassy on Libyan soil getting closed down.

Making  a fervent plea to authorities in Tunisia’s Indian embassy, ministers in his home state of Bihar and also the Union Government to rescue him from the dire straits, where his very livelihood is under severe threat, he also stated that he is entitled to two certificates for the workshops he attended to fulfil his educational requirements along with years of experience, that will render him eligible for promotion, as well as  a visa certificate by Libyan immigration and stamped by Indian Embassy.

He has even applied for and is awaiting a call from the university in his home state of Bihar to get appointed as professor. However, his anticipation will draw a naught if he is unable to secure the requisite visa permission from the Embassy.

So far, there are no signs of any help reaching this stranded NRI either from his home state or from the government at the Centre. Sanjeev keeps lamenting that his cries for help continue to fall on deaf ears. He also expressed feeling aggrieved at such callous treatment being meted out to a research  scholar who has done proud to the country in the academic field., and also got first German scholarship for Bihar.

It appears like a never ending ordeal for Sanjeev, who is living in the college security room at Msllatta which is under Elmergib University since 1 May 2019. Before this he was living in Tripoli University medical hostel from June 2018 to April 2019. He is leading a solitary life and surviving on his savings – On September 12,  2017 he had got 21 month’s salary (instead of the 39 months that was due). 

He has no job, no company, and worse,  no visa!  Last, it was heard that his landlord had been kind enough to waive his rent and in addition, he had to manage with rationed food in the trouble-torn area where people literally fight to get their quota of bread.

Of course Sanjeev deserves justice. His only means of communication or assistance is through the Indian embassy in Tunisia. As he pleads, “my visa issue has to be resolved, without which I will be facing a plight worse than that of refugees.” As it is, he is still being denied his emoluments for years of service as well as his visa document. Even worse, he was even attacked and beaten up by local goons on March 30, 2020 following which, he said, he even tried to call up the MEA in New Delhi that night, which instructed him not to move out of his room. Can his ordeal ever end? But then, as they say, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Sanjeev now pins his hopes on the new UN-backed interim government in Libya.