The Minister for Manpower Development, Youth and Employment, Alhaji Boniface Abubakar Saddiq says he has summoned an emergency meeting over cries from over 200 Ghanaian migrant workers who claim they are stranded in Qatar. Speaking to Joy News at midday, the Minister said he was surprised and amazed at the reported despair of the Ghanaian workers whose sojourn into Qatar through the facilitation of an Accra-based consultancy firm, Raman Consultancy, received official blessing. The migrant workers told Joy News early on Tuesday morning that were planning a demonstration to protest the non-payment of wages withheld for months as well as harsh living conditions that they say they had been suffering. The group claimed to have signed a contract with Raman Consultancy with the support of the Labour Office and the Ministry of Manpower for jobs mainly in the construction sector in Qatar. However months into their jobs, the workers say they were yet to receive any payment for work done. They accused the groups involved of duping them of monies paid prior to arriving in Qatar and the salaries due them. Abubakari Salifu, one of the migrant workers who acted as spokesman, told Joy FM of a horrid picture of the situation. “We thought it was genuine. They have kept us in a certain cave. We are 10 in a room that is not what they promised us. We are only feeding on rice. Apart from rice, bread and coke, we don’t have any food. Our particulars, everything has been taken from us. “When we invited the consultant, he refused to come to our aid. We have decided to make a peaceful demonstration because the first batch has refused to go to work for one week now. We don’t have our salary. We don’t have an embassy, only the Ghanaian embassy in Saudi Arabia. We’ve asked them to come to our aid, that is Rashid Bawa and he has refused to come to our aid. We have no option and no where to go.” The Employment Minister said the situation would be investigated, and if it demanded, he would send someone to Qatar to probe the claims. He admitted that his ministry, the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Immigration Service, the Labour Office and officials of national security all played roles in the recruitment of the Ghanaians. Boniface Abubakar Saddiq said the employing company initially wanted to recruit about 800 Ghanaians but got 550, and said he was aware a batch left for Qatar only last Thursday. Joy FM enquiries at the offices of Raman Consultancy indicated another batch was to be dispatched on Tuesday while others were freshly signing up to be employed to work in Qatar. Registration forms cost 100,000 cedis medical examination between One million cedis and 1.5 million cedis while recruits pay between 1000 US dollars and 2000 dollars for the processing of travel documents.