External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today said Saudi Arabia has agreed to grant exit visas to Indian workers, who are struck the country after losing their jobs, and will also provide free passage to them for their return to India.
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Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source said that the company had terminated the contracts of Saudi engineers and foreign workers in all of its branches in Riyadh, Jeddah, Mecca, Madinah, Jazan, Hail and the Eastern Province.
India has sent one of its deputy foreign ministers to Saudi Arabia to help thousands of Indian workers who have been left to starve in the kingdom.
“All people who want to go back, they will go back at the expense of the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia”, Singh told reporters in the capital, Riyadh, after meeting Saudi Labor Minister Mufrej al-Haqbani.
Satisfied over Haqbani’s response, Singh said he was thankful to the Saudi government for “very positive action and maganimous attitude”.
Thousands of jobless Pakistanis, Indians, and Filipinos are stranded and destitute in Saudi Arabia after a plunge in oil prices sparked construction layoffs.
Vikas Swarup, a spokesman for the foreign ministry, said Tuesday that initial number was an approximation, and that 7,700 Indian workers in 20 camps were affected by the crisis.
The Indian Consulate in Jeddah, with the assistance of the diaspora, has provided rations to the workers which should be sufficient for the next 8-10 days, they said.
“Saudi Arabia has also said that Indian workers staying in camps will be provided medical and other facilities, food”.
“Millions of workers from Asian countries have found employment in Saudi Arabia and other gulf states, sending vital remittances home to their families”.
Besides discussing the situation with staff of the Indian missions and representatives of the Indian workers, the Minister would also be meeting Saudi authorities to sort out the issue. “The [Pakistan] Embassy has informed [the government] that the Saudi king has issued orders for urgent payment of dues to workers by the concerned [companies]”, the office of the prime minister said.
Hundreds of foreign workers staged a rally to demand seven months of unpaid wages, reports Saudi Arabia’s Arab News.
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More than 6,200 of the stranded Indian workers were employed by a construction firm, according to Indian officials. “We will bring all of them back to India”, Swaraj said. In the given circumstances, most of the workers want to leave these companies but only after settling their dues.
