On Monday, 18 May 2026, 38 Indian national workers who had been employed at a remote Guyanese quarry under widely reported harsh working conditions for nearly three years finally regained possession of their passports at Guyana’s Ministry of Labour. The workers were recruited by EKAA HRIM Earth Resources Management, a company headquartered in India, to work at the Batavia quarry site located in Region Seven’s Cuyuni-Mazaruni interior region.
The case was brought to public attention by Azruddin Mohamed, Leader of Guyana’s opposition We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party, whose organization traveled to the remote quarry to investigate worker accounts of abuse. As of Monday afternoon, Mohamed confirmed that the workers were still waiting for Ministry of Labour officials and company representatives to calculate all outstanding unpaid wages owed to the group, a core demand ahead of their planned departure from the country.
Mohamed called the recovery of passports a “major victory” for the 38 workers, detailing a litany of alleged labor violations against the company. According to worker testimonies collected by WIN, employees were never paid overtime wages, never received formal payslips for their work, and have no confirmation that required social security deductions were ever remitted to Guyana’s National Insurance Scheme. Workers reported being forced to operate seven days a week, including national holidays, and were provided consistently low-quality food during their employment. One anonymous worker shared that he was only occasionally able to send $1200 USD back to his family in India, and expressed overwhelming eagerness to return home after years of exploitation.
Shocking accounts of workplace safety failures also emerged: one unnamed Indian worker suffered the amputation of four fingers while performing vehicle repairs at the site, and has since returned to India without receiving any workers’ compensation for his injury. Mohamed confirmed that the incident was formally reported to Guyana’s Chief Labour Officer, and WIN is pushing for the injured worker to receive full compensation despite his return to India.
Mohamed leveled severe allegations against the company and Guyana’s ruling People’s Progressive Party administration, saying the company’s treatment of workers amounts to human trafficking. He claims workers were forced to cover their own airfare to travel to Guyana for the jobs, and immediately had their passports confiscated by company representatives upon arrival – despite repeated requests from workers to have their documents returned. Adding to the exploitative terms, Mohamed says worker contracts include a punitive clause requiring employees to pay the company $5000 USD if they choose to leave their position or are terminated. “This is modern day slavery we’re under, under the PPP administration,” Mohamed stated.
WIN is calling for full legal action against EKAA HRIM Earth Resources Management for the confirmed labor violations, alongside the implementation of stronger regulatory systems to prevent the same exploitation from happening to future groups of foreign workers. “This is what we need to know and this is what the government needs to enforce,” Mohamed added.
Last week, Labour Minister Keoma Griffith confirmed that a formal government investigation into the allegations had been launched. Vishnu Panday, WIN executive member and sitting parliamentarian, confirmed that once all outstanding wage claims are resolved, the organization will escort the 38 workers to another government ministry to expedite processing for their departure from Guyana. Panday also issued a broader call for the government to conduct sweeping inspections of other interior worksites across the country, to root out additional cases of unreported foreign worker exploitation.