GOVERNMENT TO
EVACUATE JOBLESS INDIANS FACING FINANCIAL CRUNCH IN SAUDI ARABIA
A large number of Indian workers in Saudi Arabia who have lost
their jobs and cannot even buy food due to severe financial hardship will be
brought back home, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said, asserting that
not one of them will go hungry.In a statement in Parliament amid concerns by
members in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, Swaraj said her deputy V K Singh is
leaving for Saudi Arabia to oversee the evacuation process.said the Indian
embassy in the Gulf nation was running five camps to feed the affected people.
“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,”
Swaraj said.Issues like logistics and modalities of a possible repatriation of
the workers who want to return to India will be worked out during Singh’s
visit.sources said approximately 10,000 Indian workers have been affected by
the economic slowdown in the Gulf and the situation was “fluid and dynamic”.
They said the situation varied from company to company.Sources said 3,172
Indian workers in Riyadh have not been paid their salary dues for several
months but are getting regular rations.
Separately, 2,450 Indian workers belonging to the Saudi Oger
Company are housed in five camps in Jeddah, Mecca and Taif. Since July 25, the
company had stopped providing meals to the workers besides defaulting on their
salaries, the sources said.The Indian Consulate in Jeddah, with the assistance
of the diaspora, has provided rations to the workers which should be sufficient
for the next 8 10 days, they said.The government, Swaraj said, was in touch
with the foreign and labour offices in Saudi Arabia to ensure early evacuation
of affected Indians.Swaraj noted that the law there does not permit an
emergency exit visa without no objection certificate from the employers who,
she said, have shut their factories and left the country, leaving these
employees stranded.The government has requested the Saudi authorities to give
them exit visas without NoC from employers and also urged it to clear the dues
of workers who have not been paid for months, whenever they settle the accounts
with the companies concerned. .
Prof. John Kurakar
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