Indians Facing Issues in GCC

Gulf Coast Employment Tightening

In a statement, the Indian government issued a statement stating that efforts would be undertaken to “persuade” the UAE government to issue visas to Indian workers situated in the country. Special mention is for Indians currently employed but without insufficient documents and are to be deported back to their home country.

The government acted in response to Telugu Desam Party member CM Ramesh together with others in the Rajya Sabha on Indian workers that would be expelled from the UAE. According to Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi, he said he has urged the civil aviation ministry to undertake the proper arrangements for the flight back home for deported Indians.

He added that because the UAE government had established policy that would affect undocumented Indians or those with insufficient documents. One such move is to have the Ministry of External Affairs make representations to the UAE government to issue visas instead of deporting these individuals.

Ravi assured, “I will take it up (with external affairs ministry).” This moved by ably supported by Bharatiya Janata Party leader M. Venkaiah Naidu and other prominent party members. This was even seconded by Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien as not only a problem in Andra Pradesh but all of India.

The issues were raised during the zero hour by Rep Ramesh, who identified the most affected families would be from Andhra Pradesh when the UAE government’s policy of “only Indians to leave” instituted. Many of the affected workers had their passports confiscated and are now in dire straits. He added, ”Workers and their families are worried over the UAE decision.”

According to the latest statistics, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia host the largest number of Indian workers in the Gulf coast region. Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi said that a total of two million Indians currently work in Saudi Arabia and about 1.8 million are in the UAE, in his report to the Lok Sabha. The populations are followed by Kuwait with 641,062, followed by Oman with 581,832, Qatar with half a million and Bahrain with 400,000.

The countries with the lowest populations are Iraq with just 16,000 Indian workers, 10,000 are in Lebanon, 9,000 are in Jordan and 1,800 are in Libya. These statistics were reported by the Indian diplomatic missions in the respective countries.

Tagged as: employment, Gulf coast, Indians, Lebanon, Libya, qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE