JEDDAH, 12 May 2005 — The Kingdom’s official and private agencies have said they have no knowledge of reports that the Indian government has blacklisted a large number of Saudi labor recruiting companies.
“We’ve no knowledge that the Indian government has blacklisted or banned some Saudi agencies involved in recruiting labor,” an official source told Arab News. Sixty-five Saudi companies have been banned from recruiting Indian labor, according to a report in Al-Eqtisadiah.
Even a source at the Indian diplomatic level pleaded ignorance of such a move. “We haven’t heard anything like this officially from New Delhi,” the source added.
According to reports in the Indian media, the federal government has blacklisted or banned 256 companies in 15 countries involved in recruiting Indian labor. Malaysia tops with a list of 117 blacklisted companies, followed by the Kingdom with 65 companies, Qatar and the UAE 14 each, Kuwait 11, Ukraine 10, Jordan six, Oman and Kenya four each, Libya, Bahrain, Brunei, Uganda and Yemen two each, and Azerbaijan one.
Federal Junior Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Jagdish Tytler is said to have made a fresh plea with all licensed Indian labor recruiting agencies the world over to abide strictly by their contractual obligations.
