The families of Indians working in Saudi Arabia are very concerned from the past few days as these Indians are left stranded in Saudi Arabia without food and jobs. So, acting is people’s welfare, the Narendra Modi Government is all set with the plan of helping these Indians and evacuating them from this Western Asian Country.
The Central Ministry of Foreign Affairs have prepared an evacuation plan and also set up some relief camps. This action is being taken because of the wide layoffs in the country. A senior official told us that, “New Delhi is arranging exit visas for jobless workers” and for this purpose, Minster of External Affairs Gen. (retired) V K Singh have travelled to S Arabia to bring back the stranded Indians over there.
Upon V K Singh’s arrival in Jeddah on Wednesday, he got to know that nearly 10,000 Indians are facing tough conditions in S Arabia as their employers have refused to pay them wage arrears of the past seven months. Many of them doesnot even have enough money to return back to India and thus, after accessing the ground situation, V K Singh seemed concerned and urged the expatriate Indians living over there to provide some food to the stranded Indians. Also, the Indian Government has ordered the Indian Embassy in Riyadh to run at least five food camps for making the situation better. Meanwhile, the visiting Minister V K Singh has held meetings with various S Arabia officials and authorities for the payment of due salaries to the Indian labors. Also, he requested the Arabian Government on behalf of the Indian Government, to provide the workers with the exit visas as their employers have already left the country. Details of around 2,500 Indians working there have already been collected by the Indian Consulate in Jeddah so far in the various labor camps.
On August 1, 2016, Sushma Swaraj told the Indian Parliament: “Not one worker of ours will go hungry. This is my assurance to the country through Parliament. We will bring all of them back to India.” After seeing a July 29, 2016, SOS tweet by an Indian, who tagged External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj prompting the Indian Government to rescue the India workers.
It is noticeable that most of the Indians do Blue collar jobs in the Gulf nations including Saudi Arabia, and involve in jobs like Construction labor. The working conditions are very tough in such jobs and also, the Indians live under extreme heat and deplorable conditions for meager pay.
This way, the Indians working in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Iraq and the UAE, send approximately $ 30 billion to their country every year but this scenario has changed since the economic crisis and fall of crude prices. The Saudi Arabia Government reduced the Government spending in 2015, post economic crisis, due to which the construction firms, employing Indians came under pressure. Also, the implement of ‘Nitaqat’ law has increased the difficulties of Indians as this law makes the hiring of foreign labor tough. The law has been made with the purpose of forcing Saudi firms to employ locals for their jobs. It is expected that UAE and Qatar, too, plan to bring a similar law. Looking at such tenacious working conditions in the gulf countries, the Indian Government has advised its nationals not to travel to West Asia for employment.
