On Wednesday, junior Indian foreign minister Vijay Kumar Singh arrived in the kingdom to help repatriate laid off Indian workers stranded in the kingdom.
Advertisement
There are rumours that the Saudi government is planning to buy one of the companies and assume its liabilities.
The construction sector in Saudi Arabia and the wider Gulf has been hard-hit by a drop in global oil prices, which has slowed down government spending on major infrastructure projects. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article.
As thousands of laid-off Indian workers in Saudi Arabia were said to be without food, 87% of complaints received from Indian workers at Indian missions across nine countries were from six Gulf countries, with almost half of those from Qatar and Saudi Arabia, according to government data.
The government was also “providing free passage to all those who want to go back to India”, he added.
Pakistan said 8,520 of its nationals in Saudi Arabia had not been receiving their salaries for several months. They are employees of the construction giant Saudi Oger, which is facing financial turmoil linked to the fall of oil prices.
Pakistani workers in Saudi Arabia sent home $5.97 billion in the last fiscal year ended in June from Saudi Arabia, making the kingdom the top remittance provider to Pakistan, according to data from the State Bank of Pakistan.
Premier Sharif, taking notice of these reports, today directed the Minister for Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development to immediately proceed to Saudi Arabia to coordinate relief measures for stranded countrymen.
Al-Haqabani was quoted as saying that Article 81 of the Labor Law allows the worker to leave his workplace without notice if the employer fails to honor the contract or pay the salary. Indian and other foreign workers in Saudi Arabia have no path to citizenship or to gain rights to permanent residency, even if they live and work in the country for decades.
He said 1,457 workers belonging to SAAD Group, Dammam, are in two camps in Dammam; five workers belonging to Shifa Sanaya, Riyadh, are in one camp; 13 workers belonging to Taiya Contracting, Riyadh, are in one camp.
Kerala minister KTJaleel’s application for a diplomatic passport to visit Saudi Arabia was rejected by the external affairs ministry on Thursday.
Swarup said the Indian embassy in Riyadh convened a meeting of community social workers and volunteers on Monday, where the Ambassador sought their help in collecting information about the affected workers.
He also argued that only a fraction of Indians working in the Kingdom had been affected.
Advertisement
“Saudi King has taken note of the issue of jobless Indian workers and has told officials there to resolve the matter in two days”, she added.
