TRIVANDRUM, India, 26 June 2006 — New Delhi is in touch with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on signing a memorandum of understanding to stop large-scale illegal migration and exploitation of workers from India, Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi has said. “My office has sent a draft agreement to all Indian missions in the Gulf seeking their views. We will begin talks with the governments there as soon as it is ready,” the minister, back from an extensive tour of the Gulf, said.
He said the situation was alarming and several overseas Indian workers have landed in jail not knowing that they were cheated. Many were missing, but there was no mechanism to share the information with Indian missions.
“Our missions have no idea how many Indians are working, how many missing or how many have ended up in jail. But of late, community bodies have been taking active role in tracing them and securing their release,” he said.
Embassy officials have been directed to visit jails frequently and seek information about Indian prisoners. “Now our efforts are to put a permanent mechanism in place,” he told the state-run Doordarshan television in an interview yesterday.
The minister said midlevel Indian managers were equally responsible for lowering wages of the blue collar workers. Many were not getting the salary they were promised while entering into a contract.
“I took up this issue with the labor ministers there and they agreed to tighten the law to ensure minimum wages and facilities. The consultative mechanism has been strengthened,” he said. Some countries have agreed to issue smart cards to the guest workers.
He said a comprehensive law was being worked out to make the recruiting agencies as much responsible as the employers for the welfare of the migrant workers. Under the new law, it will be mandatory for all labor contracts of women workers to be attested by the embassy.
It would also be made mandatory for the housemaids to keep in touch with the missions periodically. The details would be made available on the computer network of the Protector of Emigrants and other government departments. Those who have passed grade 10 will not require emigration clearance for working abroad, the minister added.
Ahamed Thanks King Abdullah
India’s Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed meanwhile thanked Custodian of Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for the release of Indian driver Shaukat Abdul Samad. Abdul Samad, 35, from Quilon in Kerala, was jailed after the death of three Saudis of one family in an accident. He was freed after King Abdullah paid the blood money of SR185,701 to the family.
