Migrant workers who paid thousands of dollars to get to Iraq, where they hoped to find jobs as contractors, rioted yesterday because they feared they were about to be deported.

About 450 men were due to be flown out of Iraq last night after spending up to three months inside a warehouse compound near Baghdad airport. Another 500 from Bangladesh, Nepal, India and Sri Lanka will be forced to leave the country in the coming days after the Kuwaiti company that hired them failed to secure enough contract work at dining facilities inside US bases in Iraq.

Each paid up to $3,000 (£2,000) to middlemen on the promise of work as soon as they arrived in Iraq, but the jobs never materialised. Instead, they found themselves confined to three overcrowded warehouses in a secure zone around Baghdad airport. They said that food and hygiene were bad.

With fears growing that the company was preparing to deport them without paying any wages, some of the workers turned violent when Iraqi immigration officials visited the compound, according to several Sri Lankans who were there.

Iraqi security guards began shooting into the air after a company manager was beaten by the workers.

“People are getting shot at,” said Manoj Kodithuwakku, one of the Sri Lankan workers, as what sounded like gunfire cracked in the background. “It is pandemonium in here.” Sampa Fernando, 31, also from Sri Lanka, agreed. “I saw them shoot with my own eyes. As soon as that happened I ran. Nobody was killed and no one was injured in the shooting,” he said.

The men were brought to Baghdad in the past three months to work for Najlaa International Catering Services, which is a subcontractor to Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR), a main service provider to the US Department of Defence. Last night hundreds were being taken out of the country. “The buses are going now,” Mr Kodithuwakku, 28, said. “We have reached a point where there is no other way to turn than to go.”

A couple of the workers had minor cuts to their heads after being hit by stones before Iraqi police arrived.

The feeling of resentment was running high, with workers accusing Najlaa of tricking them into handing over their passports on Tuesday after assurances that they would be used in the payment of salaries. The passports were not returned, which led to speculation that they were being kept before a mass, enforced departure.

Marwan Rizk, the chief executive officer of Najlaa, said the company had decided that the best thing was for the workers to go home.

“They are being demobilised to their respective countries,” he told The Times. “It is because some contracts have basically vanished or been rescinded.” Mr Rizk, speaking from Kuwait, said that each man would receive a month’s salary when they arrived in Dubai, a transit hub for people travelling from Baghdad. He rejected allegations that the men were kept in poor living conditions.

At the warehouses the mood was dark, with people contemplating a premature return to their families in debt rather than with the expected riches of a deployment to Iraq, where wages are much higher than in the developing world.

“We do not have any money to celebrate Christmas,” said Sanjaya Jayawardhana, 29, who has a child. “I have spent three months without getting anything. We have been turned into beggars.” Mr Kodithuwakku said that he was putting a dream to migrate to Australia on hold: “It will be a gloomy Christmas. But I will survive.”

Both of the men, as well as several others contacted by The Times, feel they have been exploited. Asked about the allegations, a spokesman for the US military said: “We take every allegation of human rights violation seriously and are looking into the issue. Until that time, we will reserve comment.”

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