DAMMAM, 20 January — Indian expatriates welcome the proposed agreement between Riyadh and New Delhi on combating drug trafficking to be signed during the visit of Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh.
Singh arrived in the Kingdom yesterday for the first major visit by a senior Indian official since the 1982 visit of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Indian nationals living in the Kingdom are concerned over the steady increase in the number drug smuggling cases involving their compatriots. Just 10 days ago, an Indian was beheaded in Alkhobar for smuggling drugs. Besides, many drug cases involving Indian workers are pending with the country's courts.
Until now drugs found its way into the Kingdom mainly through Pakistan and Afghanistan and the anti-narcotics department has nabbed several culprits who were subsequently punished according to the Shariah law.
Indian residents feel that the problem of drug smuggling from India lies with unscrupulous recruiting agents who use prospective job hunters as carriers. There has been cases where the victims were not aware that the packages handed to them for delivery in the Kingdom contained contrabands.
These people were lured by recruiting agents in cities like Bombay and Trivandrum with the offer of free visas. Normally, a job seeker pays a premium -- an illegal fee fixed by the recruiting agents -- to obtain employment visas for the Gulf countries. Visa trading has become an accepted fact in India despite the government's effort to curb this illegal practice.
Many people even do not know that drug trafficking carries maximum punishment in the Kingdom. Indian residents say that the government back home should launch an awareness campaign in places like Kerala, Hyderabad and northern India from where a majority of workers come to the Gulf countries.
The officials should crack down on unscrupulous recruiting agents who bluff thousands of Indians to take such a fatal risk in their desperate search for prosperity, they say.
They also hoped that the customs authorities in India would be more vigilant about passengers leaving the country's airports for Gulf destinations in order to curb this menace. In Pakistan, customs officials currently are very strict with Gulf passengers and check their baggage thoroughly prior to departure.
Indian workers hoped that Singh's visit would help improve the consular services of the Indian Embassy. They also urged the Indian minister to look into the affairs of Indian schools in the Kingdom and will help evolve a system to provide quality education to their children.
More than one million Indians work in Saudi Arabia and they make up the Kingdom's largest expatriate population.
