Bhayandar-based chef forced to work 20 hours a day at Maldives resort brought back to India

MUMBAI: A 24-year-old man from Bhayandar who was allegedly exploited and harassed while working as a chef at a resort in the Maldives for almost a year has returned to Mumbai after the Bharosa Cell of the Mira-Bhayandar Vasai-Virar police stepped in.
Mann Parikh’s return follows a six-month-long effort by his mother, 55-year-old Gayatri Parikh, who ran from pillar to post to get the authorities to help bring her only son back from the Maldives, where he was allegedly being forced to work for over 20 hours at a stretch and not given decent food.
Mann, who had studied hotel management, applied for jobs in foreign countries last year as they paid well. In December 2023, he left for the Maldives after getting a job as a chef at a resort in the archipelagic state. However, within weeks, he called his mother complaining that he was being exploited.
Mann’s parents then pleaded with his employer to cancel his contract and allow him to return to Mumbai. They were also ready to pay out his contract, but the resort’s owner, who had allegedly confiscated his passport, did not agree.
Gayatri Parikh then approached various authorities to help get her son back to India. “I went to the police, Mantralaya, wrote to the Indian embassy in the Maldives and did whatever I could to get my son back. For six months, I begged people for my son’s freedom, but nothing worked. Like my son, there are at least 15 other men who are going through the same harassment and want to quit and return to their native places, but there is no one to help them,” she said.
On November 15, Parikh eventually contacted the Bharosa Cell, which was set up to assist senior citizens, women, and children. “We heard Parikh and spoke to the owner of the resort, explaining that Mann was unhappy there and wanted to return to India. On November 17, eventually, the employer agreed to send Mann back. On Thursday, he flew from the Maldives to return to Mumbai to his parents,” said police sub-inspector Tejashree Shinde from the Bharosa Cell.