Indian Consulate issues 500% more tickets home

FLIGHTS HOME: The Indian Consulate has confirmed that is sending more labourers home on emergency tickets from the UAE, and fewer workers are being recruited. (Getty Images)

The number of emergency one-way flight tickets home issued to Indian nationals since the start of 2009 has soared nearly six-fold compared to the previous year, according to new official figures that shed new light on the scale of the slowdown in the UAE’s jobs market.

The Consulate General of India in Dubai revealed that it had issued 5,277 emergency certificates, permitting one-way travel to India, in the first four months of 2009, up from 894 in the same period last year.

The documents were issued in lieu of missing passports to skilled and unskilled workers.

“It is a fact that many people have returned, many workers,” said Venu Rajamony, Consul General of India, at a conference on Wednesday.

In some instances unemployed workers had been abandoned in the country without food or shelter, but they had been helped by the Indian community, he added.

At the same time, the number of Indian nationals arriving in the UAE slowed down in January but has since picked up marginally, according to other consulate data.

The number of Indians recruited for work in the Emirates dropped by nearly 93 percent to 241 in January, down from 3,410 in the same month last year, Rajamony said at the GCC Leadership Summit on labour management in Dubai.

The Consulate General approved the recruitment of 487 Indian nationals in April, compared to 1,182 in April last year.

But, total figures for the number of workers who had returned home to India since the global financial crisis hit the emirates were less clear, he said.

Some employers had sent workers home on leave until the economy improved, a measure the Consul General was concerned should not be used as a tactic to avoid paying the termination fees of visas.

A total of 1.5 million Indians were working in the UAE before the crisis hit, with the majority based in Dubai and the northern emirates.

Around 65 percent of those nationals were blue collar workers, constituting 42.5 percent of the UAE’s labour force, Rajamony told delegates.

He added that the number of grievances made by labourers to the Consulate General totalled 2,693 last year, up from 760 in 2005, while the total number of suicides reported last year was 89, compared with 118 in 2007.

“Financial problems, alienation from the family, working conditions and the fear that whatever workers earn here is not sufficient to repay all of the debts they have paid to come here all contribute to suicide, in our assessment,” he said.

The Indian government had taken further steps to protect its workforce abroad since setting up the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs in 2004.

It had embarked on a national public awareness campaign warning people about the dangers of illegal recruitment practices and unscrupulous recruitment agencies.

A large number of Indian agencies specialising in recruitment for overseas work had been prosecuted and had their registration cancelled due to the exploitation of labourers, he said.

Alex Zalami, senior advisor for the UAE Ministry of Labour, said joint committees needed to be set up between the UAE and India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Philippines to ensure standardised practices of recruitment agencies recruiting foreign workers.

Yousuf Adbulghani, executive director, policies and strategy at the Ministry of Labour, added that the government was working on drawing up a standardised set of rules controlling the operation of overseas recruitment agencies.

"We expect our partners in the country of origin to be responsible to the same level and not to pass the problems away," he said.

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READERS' COMMENTS

consulates
Posted by paul, Dubai, UAE on Thursday 30 April 2009 at 11:16 UAE time


Some consulates would probably not have any reliable figures on the number of their citizens in the country. UK and French citizens for example can enter without a visa, and typically arrange work and residence visas without the involvement of their consulate.

The UK (and probably) other countries had a voluntary web-based system where you can register your whereabouts so that in an emergency they would know where you are. But I am not sure how many people use this, so it would be an unreliable guide.

That said, these figures do indicate what most of us believe, that more people are leaving than are coming in, by quite a big margin. A bit of clarification over the immigration department figures is needed for their credibility - are they counting renewals as new visas? I suspect yes, though I recall some months ago when they issued similarly surprising figures, they said no when asked this.

The UAE needs to publish full, clear and open figures, with a clear explanation of the methodology. Producing figures that seem to fly in the face of what everyone is seeing and then being vague about how they are compiled only weakens trust in the official line. If they cannot publish good clear figures, it would be better not to publish anything and at least avoid the cynicism. A quick read of the comments here shows that most people are simply incredulous about the official figures.

Thanks for your crystal clear information...
Posted by Ramesh, Dubai, UAE on Wednesday 29 April 2009 at 21:22 UAE time

Finally some good correct, right, true information on the worse conditions of dubai market.

Clarity
Posted by RP, Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Wednesday 29 April 2009 at 19:51 UAE time


Finally some hard figures from someone who knows.

Can you ask the Pakistan, Bangladesh, Philippines, British, French, etc consulates to provide the same information?

It would make some interesting reading and at least we could take a view on what is happening with the work force in the Emirates.

Thanks.

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