Indian workers who are working in large numbers in Saudi Arabia and who have lost their jobs and can not even buy food due to severe financial hardship will be brought to India soon as the Indian workers need not strive from hungry said by the External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
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Many workers who have been laid-off were employed with companies that have themselves folded up, and therefore the requisite “no-objection” certificates needed for emergency exit visas are proving hard to procure, Ms. Swaraj said.
Sushma Swaraj said 10,000 Indian workers rendered jobless in Saudi Arabia.
New Delhi:New Delhi was working Sunday to feed more than 10,000 Indian labourers stranded in the Gulf with no wages after losing their jobs, in what Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj called a “food crisis”. The Indian government says the situation in Kuwait is more “manageable” for its citizens than it is in Saudi Arabia.
Minister of state for external affairs MJ Akbar would be taking up the issue with the Saudi and Kuwaiti authorities, she said.
Foreign Ministry has given instruction to Indian Embassy in Riyadh and Consulate in Jeddah to urgently provide food assistance to them, they said.
The government is reportedly also discussing the possibility of paying the workers their due before they are brought back to the country.
The Consul General said the Indian mission in Jeddah has ensured provision of food for 2,530 Indian workers of one of the construction companies.
“We have contacted foreign and labour offices”.
Over the weekend, hundreds of expatriate workers of the construction firm Saudi Oger staged rare protests in Jiddah to demand unpaid wages.
Apart from this, the minister also said that she was continuously in touch with concerned authorities for all the developments.
“We have asked @IndianEmbRiyadh to provide free ration to the unemployed Indian workers in Saudi Arabia”, she tweeted.
The plight of the workers came to the government’s notice following reports that Indian workers in a large Saudi Arabian construction company in Jeddah were not paid their salaries for the last seven months pushing the workers to near starvation.
Almost three million Indians live and work in Saudi Arabia, according to the foreign ministry, constituting one of the largest populations of Indian passport holders outside ofIndia.
India’s move is in response to a July 29 tweet-tagging the country’s foreign minister Sushma Swaraj-about the condition of such Indians in Jeddah.
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Efforts to get food aid to Indians in need have been coordinated through the Indian consulate in Saudi Arabia’s port city of Jeddah.
