They said the situation varied from company to company. Of 55,119 complaints in these nine nations, the India mission in Qatar received 13,624 complaints, followed by missions in Saudi Arabia (11,195), Kuwait (11,103) and Malaysia (6,346), the Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament) was told by the ministry of external affairs.
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Hundreds of foreign workers at construction firm Saudi Oger staged a public protest in Jeddah at the weekend to demand seven months of unpaid wages, Saudi Arabia’s Arab News reported.
Numerous companies employing them have suffered from the drop in oil revenues from falling prices, prompting a downturn in construction and layoffs. “The company has defaulted on their salaries”, the official said.
“Imagine the workers’ plight – many of them were just surviving on water and salt when we reached [them] with the food packets”, said Asim Zeeshan, representative of an umbrella organization called the Indian Community of Jeddah.
The workers have now been supplied with 16,000kg of food from the Indian government.
Akbar, it is learnt, has also sought Saudi assistance in arranging exit visas for all Indian workers who wish to be repatriated.
“Logistics and modalities of a possible repatriation of those workers who want to return will be worked out following V.K. Singh’s visit”, they said. “The company claims she will be reimbursed next month but I’m not sure how true that is considering the scenario”, said Shamak Irani*, a Mumbai-based writer. I am monitoring the situation. ration has been distributed to all five camps for the next 10 days.
“But this is not a permanent solution to the problem”.
“Any Indian labourer outside the country, if he does not have work, government takes the responsibility that he will not sleep hungry”, Sushma Swaraj added. “We have asked their labour office that all the workers will sign a contract before leaving that you will first settle the payments of the workers when you deal with the dues of the companies lying with you”, Swaraj said.
Fewer Indian workers are travelling to the Gulf, stung by practices such as nitaqat (employing local people), cheap migrant labour from countries such as Bangladesh, stricter crackdown on illegal workers and a slump in the once-booming construction sector.
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Swaraj said this while chairing a meeting of the India Development Foundation of Overseas Indians (IDF-OI), a not-for-profit trust established by government of India with an aim to supplement country’s social development efforts.
