DAMMAM, 9 February 2003 — With war fever growing by the day, the United States has issued a travel advisory to its diplomatic staff, telling them that they can send their families home if they want to.

The British Embassy has told Britons to make sure their dependents have a valid visas in their passports.

Clear, sound advice has been issued by the Spanish, Germany, Belgium and Canadian embassies.

Filipinos saw their president visit Kuwait to reassure her fellow countrymen in the Gulf that they will be evacuated if their safety can no longer be guaranteed.

So what have South Asian expatriates been told by their diplomats?

Absolutely nothing.

Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis contacted by Arab News yesterday said that they felt neglected by their embassies.

The substantial Indian community in particular is upset about the apparent apathy of their country’s mission.

With 1.6 million Indians in the Kingdom, they form the largest expatriate community.

Here in the Eastern Province, Indians are by far the largest group among all the foreign workers.

Indians cite the Philippine government’s decision to establish a Middle East Preparedness Team (MEPT), which is coordinating contingency plans for the safety and security of the overseas Filipino workers (OFW), as an example of what should be done.

The head of MEPT, retired Gen. Roy Cimatu, a special presidential envoy and his seven-member team met with the Filipino community at the International Philippine School in Alkhobar on Friday.

The ambassador, Bahnarim A. Guinomla, also met with Filipinos and personally reassured them about both their immediate safety and his mission’s readiness to meet with any eventuality should war break out. A handbook was distributed to the Filipino workers, which detailed the contingency plans.

The Indian Embassy, on the other hand, has not communicated at all with Indian expatriates.

The Indian foreign minister did meet Indian envoys in the Middle East two weeks ago to discuss a contingency plan, but the Indian mission in Riyadh has done nothing off its own back. There have only been sporadic telephone calls from Indian Embassy officials to individual Indian residents, during which they make inquiries about how the Indian expatriate community is feeling.

During the 1991 Gulf War, the Indian mission undertook one of the largest evacuation projects ever.

More than 100,000 Indians, most of them from Kuwait who had crossed over to Saudi Arabia through Khafji, were airlifted to various destinations in India.

The Indian mission also set up camps at the then Indian Embassy School to accommodate those Indians who had fled Kuwait.

However, this time the Indian mission has not even bothered to send a minor official to Dammam and Alkhobar.

Calls to the Indian Embassy are invariably greeted with the following reply: “We have a contingency plan. You have nothing to be afraid of.”

But Indians are asking: Where are the details?

“The missions may be busy with Haj, but these are difficult times and it’s very important for us to have a feeling that our embassy is fully behind us,” said Daniel Christopher, an Indian executive working in a Transport Company in Dammam.

Pakistanis contacted by Arab News also feel neglected by their embassy, which they said should communicate more with Pakistani expats to reassure them about their safety if war does, as is widely predicted, break out in the near future.