The southern Indian state of Kerala, which heavily depends on remittances from its overseas workers for economic sustenance, will offer “a lot of benefits” to the firms hiring returnees from Saudi Arabia. This is part of the rehabilitation package adopted by the state’s cabinet last week along with free air tickets and self-employment schemes. Employers setting up a quota of at least 25 percent in fresh recruits for them will get the benefits, which are to be specified.

All those who are forced to return from the Kingdom as they failed to legalize their job and residence statuses before Nov. 3 deadline were asked to fill in a specified form and register online or at the help desks of the department of Nonresident Keralites Affairs (Norka) at the three international airports of the state.

Since April, 14,431 workers from Kerala have reported loss of job in Saudi Arabia, 1748 of them registered online and a vast majority of 8,562 registrations were recorded at the Calicut airport in the northern Malabar region of the state.

“Our priority is to send them back to other Gulf destinations if they are willing to migrate. The Saudi authorities have done us a great favor by not banning them taking up jobs in other Gulf Cooperation Council countries,” said P. Sudeep, the chief executive officer of Norka-ROOTS, the field agency of Norka department, which is also the nodal agency for the project.

The state government is encouraging returnees to form self-help groups of different trades and launch small enterprises. For instance, drivers can join hands in small groups to start rent-a-car business with loans from commercial banks as well as government entities like Kerala Financial Corporation with government subsidies on the capital investment as well as the interest part.

Sudeep said the state government has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Canara Bank, the state’s lead bank, to ensure that loans up to a maximum of Rs 2,00,000 can be provided to them to start small businesses or taxi services.

“We are also in touch with big business groups in the Gulf promoted by people from the state. They have agreed to absorb experienced people who are interested to work there,” he said. “Besides, big events are coming up in Dubai and Doha offering a lot of opportunities”.

Kerala airports were witnessing a slight increase in the arrivals of permanent returnees from the Kingdom during the last few days. While 84 returnees registered at the Norka counters on Nov 4, the day after the deadline, it rose to 131 the next day. There were 161 returnees on Wednesday, 166 on Thursday, 163 on Friday and 96 till Saturday afternoon.