Doha: The embassy of India has blacklisted 11 local companies and put another 35 on watch-list for mistreating mostly low-paid Indian workers.

The 11 firms have been removed from the embassy's prior approval category (PAC) and will not be entitled to employ Indian workers any more.

The firms include engineering, construction and contracting, garment manufacturer as well as manpower recruiting agencies, a source at the Indian diplomatic mission said.

The labour ministry in New Delhi has been notified and it would, in turn, intimate the embassy of Qatar about the blacklisting. Mistreating workers of any nationality is against Qatar's labour law, too.

Companies on the watch-list are to be observed over a period of time and if they improve their track record of treating their Indian employees well, they could be removed from the watch-list.

The blacklisted companies as well as those on the watch-list have defaulted in paying salaries and other benefits to their Indian workers.

The accommodation and in some case, the food they provide to workers, are sub-standard.

According to the embassy source, enquiries from some 100 harassed Indian workers point to a nexus between some manpower agencies and employing firms in Qatar and recruiting agencies in India.

The embassy has collected evidence from a number of unskilled and semi-skilled Indian workers who have paid sums ranging from Rs 45,000 (QR3,700) to Rs 75,000 (QR6,000) to manpower agencies back home to get jobs in Qatar.

Many of such workers have been repatriated by the embassy with help from a community corpus, the Indian Community Benevolent Fund (ICBF).

Charging huge sums from poor Indian job-seekers is against the law, said the embassy source.

The money is not pocketed by the Indian manpower agencies alone and it is plausible to suspect that their "cohorts" in Qatar (manpower agencies) share the "booty".

There are some companies as well (in Qatar) that seem to be involved in money-spinning work visa rackets and may be getting huge commissions on recruitment of workers they need, said the embassy source.

A detailed report identifying unscrupulous players in the recruitment business here and in India, and details of harassed workers is expected to be forwarded to the concerned Indian authorities by the mission for action.