THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, 15 September 2007 — The non-resident Indians and travel industry in general have welcomed the new emigration rule announced by Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi doing away with the Emigration Clearance Required Suspended (ECRS) on passports.

The minister had last week told both the houses of Indian Parliament, Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, that some 550,000 Emigration Clearance Required (ECR) passport holders would save an average of Rs.6 billion spent by them every year for getting ECR Suspended (ECRS) stamp on their passports. Now, only those who have not cleared Class 10 are issued ECR passports in India.

Under the Emigration Act, 1983, a person holding an ECR passport is required to obtain emigration clearance from the Protector of Emigrants (POE) before leaving the country for overseas employment.

The Emigration Act does not cover ECR passport holders who travel overseas for visits other than for employment. However, for the last two decades administrative instructions have been in force requiring them to obtain ECRS.

“The ECRS system has no statutory basis. No other country imposes such restrictions on international travel. The ECRS system has led to considerable inconvenience and harassment to passengers. It has resulted in corruption in POE offices and a nexus between unscrupulous recruiting agents and middlemen resulting in the exploitation of a large number of poor people,” Vayalar Ravi said.

“It imposes a form of tax on a poor person apart from resulting in corruption. It has not achieved its objective (to prevent misuse of visit visa for employment purposes),” he said.

The Committee of Secretaries (COS), chaired by the Cabinet secretary, in its meeting held on Aug. 20 approved the proposal which would come into force from Oct. 1.

“We welcome the government’s decision. This ECRS stamp requirement promotes corruption among officials and harassment at Indian airports,” said K.V. Shamsudheen, chairman of Pravasi Bandhu Trust and vice chairman of Indian business and professional council, Sharjah. “When poor workers travel abroad, the police who conduct emigration and security check take away all the Indian currencies they carry. Government should launch an awareness campaign among the Gulf-bound workers through the media,” he suggested in a statement here.

“Government should bring out a pamphlet containing details like travel requirements and procedures besides addresses and telephone and fax numbers of embassies and consulates in GCC countries. It should be made available in all regional languages so that the poor workers benefit,” he said.

Vayalar Ravi admitted that the worst victims were the uneducated ECR passport holders who do not know the distinction between emigration clearance, which is mandatory for employment overseas, and ECRS, which is only for visits abroad.

“This ignorance is often exploited to send them abroad for employment on visit visas. The poor worker does not know that the agent has only arranged a visit visa that does not entitle him to work abroad. We have requested the Ministry of Home Affairs to modify the departure and arrival cards accordingly,” he said.

However, some are still skeptical that corruption would end by simply doing away with the ECRS condition. They say the government’s decision would open up chances for a new type of irregularity.

“The decision is laudable but it would not serve the purpose of eliminating corruption in the emigration sector,” said B. Vivek, president of the Recruiting Agents’ Association of Kerala. “In order to eliminate corruption, the government should do away with the emigration clearance system entirely.”

E.M. Najeeb, chairman and managing director of Air Travel Enterprises said, ‘’What the government could do is to negotiate with foreign countries and ensure that visas and job contracts are issued through proper channels.’’

The minister said the condition of Indian women who work in the Gulf was a matter of concern for the government and it wants to introduce changes that will end their exploitation. The government wants the Gulf states to fix a minimum wage for the workers like the Philippines, which pegs the minimum wage for women domestic workers at $400 a month.

Nearly five million Indians work in the Gulf and send home about $7 billion every year but, according to official estimates, nearly half of them are unskilled and barely literate working as domestic help, janitors, gardeners, carpenters and porters.