An indication of reforms in this direction was given by UAE Minister of Labor Saqr Gobash Saeed Gobash. He said employment contracts of Indian workers will now be attested online, making the process transparent. Following the launch of the system in Abu Dhabi on April 4 in the presence of Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi, workers could review the terms of the contract and approve them before leaving India for the UAE.

Krishna could push for similar initiatives in other Gulf countries to help safeguard the interests of Indian workers in the region. Appalling working conditions and the absence of social security protection for women, including domestic workers, dictate the need for strong governmental interventions. The only way forward is for India to enter into bilateral agreements with the Gulf countries to curb exploitation of Indian labor and ensure a decent working environment for them.

Long-time residents in the Gulf, too, feel the same way. According to Ramesh G. Jathwani, Indian diplomatic missions in Gulf countries should provide legal aid to NRIs when they land in trouble. He argues that when a country like the Philippines has taken a proactive measure in the interest of its overseas workers, India should not lag behind.

One way is to make it mandatory that every Indian who travels to the Gulf on a job visa should be insured on a cost-sharing basis between the NRI and his employer. Such a condition should be included in the contract, since returnees from the Gulf should have a nest egg to fall back upon when they relaunch their careers. However, a major problem facing the returnees, especially from the Gulf, is the lack of job opportunities for them.

Syed Zia-ur-Rahman, founder of Yahind.com, who returned from Riyadh in March this year after working for nearly three decades as an executive in the health care sector, sums up the situation. He says that the longer one stay as an NRI in the Gulf, the more difficult it will be to reintegrate into the value chain back home.

The digital divide between India and the Gulf across the verticals (IT, health care and other sectors) makes it difficult for the returnees to catch up with the state-of-the-art system back home. After surveying the market, he has now decided to set up his business in Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh. The need to retrain NRIs from the Gulf along with a separate training-cum-employment exchange for them should underpin any rehabilitation program being considered.

Then there are moral issues created by some unscrupulous elements among the Gulf NRIs. Bangalore-based journalist M.A. Siraj says an NRI working in Dubai has been harassing his wife.

“My friend’s daughter from a respectable business family of Bangalore was married to a guy employed in Dubai some two years ago. He also hails from Bangalore. Huge dowry and cash was offered. The guy is employed in a good company. He has been dilly-dallying about calling his wife to Dubai. The marriage happened in June 2009. Having waited for a visa for two months, the girl went to Dubai on a visit visa. She stayed with him for two months and was dispatched to Bangalore on expiry of visa. As soon as the girl reached Dubai, the boy also called his own parents to Dubai to stay with him. The girl was mentally tortured for two months.”

He adds that since then the NRI neither takes nor makes calls and has been torturing the girl, 31, mentally. All attempts to contact him in Dubai have failed, since the police there would not entertain cases pertaining to a foreign country. The person has managed to evade arrest in Bangalore, since each time he visits Bangalore, he greases palms at the right place to evade action against him. Even a representation made to the Ministry of External Affairs has drawn a blank.

During his visit to Cairo in March, the external affairs minister had asked Indian envoys to help expatriates in distress by appointing welfare officers. He also wanted Indian ambassadors to designate two hours every week to meet Indians who are experiencing distress situations, and called on them to interact with such citizens in an expeditious manner.

Surely, if the ministry could take action in the case of the NRI couple in Norway, what prevents it in dealing with a similar case, albeit in a different context, in Dubai?