India, June 25 -- MEERUT Stripped of their identities, fed on cattle fodder, brutally beaten for simply asking to go home... This was allegedly the terrifying reality for 12 labourers held captive in a Muzaffarnagar factory for over a year. Following a dramatic police rescue, the survivors are now detailing their descent into a forced-labour nightmare that left one of their own dead and the rest bearing the deep scars of survival.

While some are relieved at the prospect of returning home, many still bear visible injury marks that they claim are the result of repeated assaults. Though each worker's experience differs, their accounts paint a similar picture of alleged captivity, physical violence, hunger and prolonged separation from their...