BEIRUT: At the jetty at the Beirut harbour, South Asian workers — mainly Indian, Sri Lankan and Nepalese — are asked to line up separately before boarding the Indian naval ships. Naval personnel, who are part of the ships' crew, with the help of the Indian embassy staff, make sure that this is done in an orderly manner.

However, there is one queue that attracts maximum attention — of workers who have no papers, money or belongings, and have been staying illegally in Lebanon. These are desperate men who have faced abuse and exploitation by shadowy trans-national criminal gangs, engaged in human trafficking.

Kartar Singh, Sukhwinder Singh and Manish Lal are from Ropar, Punjab. They have a sorry tale to narrate. They had paid more than Rs. 2 lakh each to an agent in their hometown, who promised to get them well-paying jobs in the Gulf. The three were given papers and asked to board a Syrian Airlines flight from New Delhi.

Instead of the Gulf, the plane brought them to the Syrian capital of Damascus. Arab "agents" met them there and took them to a desolate location outside Damascus, on the edge of the Antilebanon mountain ranges. By nightfall, the tired and hungry men were asked to walk along the "donkey route," the path in the mountains that donkeys took when it was used for trade between Syria and Lebanon, into Lebanon.

"When we protested, the three Arabs beat us with leather belts. Then they took all our belongings, including the few rupees and dollars we had. They did not spare even our clothes," said Kartar Singh.

When they finally reached Beirut after an eight-hour ordeal, the agents disappeared. "For two months we barely managed to survive, doing odd jobs," recalled Manish Lal.

When the war came and bombs started raining on Beirut, the three decided that they had had enough. They approached the Indian embassy for help and are now ready to board the ship.

The Nepalese had also undergone a similar experience. They were brought to Lebanon through India on a three-month tourist visa. Once it expired, they became illegal immigrants, and were systematically exploited.

Help, however, came from an unexpected quarter. One of their compatriots, Dipendra Upreti, who himself was once an illegal immigrant, toiled manfully to get them out of harm's way.

Five years ago, a local church group bailed Mr. Upreti out after he was jailed because of his illegal status.

Subsequently, he studied hotel management in Beirut and now has a well-paying job. The young man, whose cellphone now rarely stops ringing, alerted the Nepalese consulate about the plight of the workers.

He then contacted the Indian embassy in Beirut, the Nepalese embassy in Cairo, the Nepalese Foreign Ministry in Kathmandu and persisted till help finally arrived.

Pleased with his effort, Mr. Upreti waited at the jetty till INS Mumbai set sail for Larnaca in Cyprus, with the evacuees.

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