The Indian government has hired three legal firms to start assisting distressed Indian workers in the Kingdom, according to India’s Minister of Overseas Affairs Vayalar Ravi.

The minister said that Saudi Arabia has assured India it will tackle the issue of irregular Indian expatriate workers with “a humanitarian approach.”

Addressing a press conference here yesterday following his talks with Dr. Ahmed bin Mohammed Al-Salem, deputy minister of interior, Ravi said the talks focused on a range of labor issues. “What is happening in Saudi Arabia is a natural consequence (of local laws), and the Kingdom’s labor policy is non-discriminatory … we will exert all efforts to legalize the status of our workers,” he said.

Ravi, who is leading a goodwill mission comprising Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed and Indian prime ministerial adviser T.K.A. Nair announced the decision to set up a panel of at least “three local legal firms by the embassy to provide initial legal assistance to workers in need.”

“This is a work in progress and we will continue to enlarge this panel to include more legal firms and lawyers,” he said.

The press conference was attended by Nair, Ambassador Hamid Ali Rao and Deputy Chief of the Mission Sibi George.

Ravi also interacted with a large number of Indian nationals in a community meeting here Monday night in which he answered several questions. The meeting at the embassy was attended by about 400 workers, with professionals and businessmen.

Ravi said there are now 60,000 Indian workers seeking emergency travel certificates from the Indian diplomatic missions. The embassy has recently enlisted the services of 10 Indian community schools in the Kingdom to collect emergency travel documents.

He lashed out at certain Indian recruitment agents, calling on the state governments in India “to prosecute unscrupulous recruiting agents who send workers abroad without proper documents.”

He said the Indian government had started derecognizing overseas labor agents who are responsible for the current plight of some Indians in Gulf states including those affected by the Nitaqat policy. “For the past several years, my ministry has been carrying out advertisement campaigns in various languages to safeguard the interests of overseas workers … but I am sad such campaigns have not delivered results.”

Asked about the fate of 10 community schools employing expatriate housewives, the minister said that the issue has been discussed with Saudi officials and the embassy is working to solve the problem. An estimated 1,000 women, mostly housewives, without work permits, are employed by the community schools across the Kingdom.

He said that the joint panel set up by the Kingdom and India will hold its first meeting today to discuss all these issues.

The Indian state of Kerala will be greatly affected by the Nitaqat policy. Malayalis, as the natives of Kerala are called, comprise nearly 700,000 out of more than two million Indians in Saudi Arabia.

Ravi said that he discussed with Saudi officials “the urgency to have a memorandum of understanding on labor cooperation.”

The joint working group on labor cooperation has been constituted and will meet in New Delhi sometime next month, he said.

About the plans to seek royal clemency for Indian prisoners currently languishing in jails, Rao said that “the embassy is working on all such welfare programs.”

Riyadh and New Delhi have an agreement that provides a mechanism for swapping of prisoners.

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah pardons many foreign workers convicted on petty charges every year during Ramadan.