Many workers from Pakistan and Bangladesh have been abandoned without pay, with no electricity and barely enough food to survive by their employers in the Gulf countries when the economy took a turn for the worse.

Many of them, with their passports confiscated, were prevented from leaving the country.

Yet despite the risks, thousands of Indians continue to try their luck in the Gulf, although many are not faring any better.

Al Jazeera's Prerna Suri reports from Malappuram, Northern Kerala. (Aug 05, 2010)