About 150,000 Gulf Indian expats return home - minister

zoom

HEADED HOME: most of the workers have returned to India on leave without pay. (Getty Images)

An estimated 150,000 Indian expatriate workers have returned home from the Gulf following the financial downturn, the country’s lower house was told on Wednesday.

India’s minister for overseas Indian affairs Vayalar Ravi informed the parliament that an estimated 50,000 to 150,000 workers, employed in the Gulf have returned to India due to delay in execution of projects in the region, news agencies reported. In his written reply to a question, the minister told the Lok Sabha that the workers in the UAE seemed to be most affected.

He said most of the workers have returned to India on leave without pay with the expectation that they would be able to go back to the Gulf country once the situation improves.

However, Ravi added that Indian Missions in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar have informed that there have been some job losses in these countries.

“Information received from Indian Missions in Afghanistan, Syria, Sudan, Brunei, Libya, Jordan and Lebanon indicate that there is no report of Indians affected by the recession,” The Financial Express quoted the minister as saying.

The Indian embassy in the UAE could not give precise figures of returnees, but indicated that the number was very large, according to the IANS newswire.

Replying to a separate question, Ravi said the government has already strengthened the Indian embassies in the UAE by posting counsellors to provide assistance to the Indian workers.

“They will be assisted by local Indian professionals in extending legal, medical and financial counselling to the workers in need,” he said.

The number of Indians in the Gulf is estimated to be about four million.

Print | Email | Discuss this article

| Share |

READERS' COMMENTS

@AVH / Salwa
Posted by Bong, Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Thursday 16 July 2009 at 14:28 UAE time


1. @ AVH The Government of India has already taken steps in the direction of rooting out corrupt agents.
2. In case you did't know - Lot of experienced blue collar workers are returning to India and are being very competitive salary.
3. Adding value is a vague term - unless you understand what adding value means to each of the workers. Broadly - everybody would like to earn well (adding value to oneself & family) and would want a good carreer.

4. @ Salwa - Please do not be of the opinion that GCC / Middle East is the only place where people from Subcontinent are going. The no. 1 destination being U.S. No. of Indians alone in US (2006 consensus) was 1.6Mn. I give below an extract on Indian immigrants (US Census :2006)
Quote
Over one-quarter of Indian-born men were employed in information technology occupations.
Among the 629,218 Indian-born male workers age 16 and older employed in the civilian labor force, 27.4 percent reported working in information technology, and 20.0 percent reported working in management, business, and finance. Compared to other immigrants, Indian-born male workers age 16 and older employed in the civilian labor force were also more likely to report working as physicians, scientists and engineers, and in sales (see Table 3).

Both Indian foreign-born men and women were significantly less likely to be employed as construction, extraction, and transportation workers than foreign-born men and women overall.
Quote
The difference between Indians in US and Indians in GCC is in the last paragraph - to sum it up in braod sense - due to labour laws in this part of the world most of the talented & educated Indians / Asians would prefer to be in a "freer society".

What next?
Posted by AVH on Wednesday 15 July 2009 at 01:06 UAE time


The Indian Government releases some figures. Why? Their prime concern is the billions pouring in from around the world as precious foreign exchange. Why are there no initiatives to clamp down on ruthless job agents? Why are there no mandatory programs to educate unskilled workers on the conditions they can face in the Gulf? If the Indian Government doesn't care about how many of their own citizens are frying out in the sun, then why blame the GCC Governments?

On the other hand, the average educated Indian expat in the UAE seems to be stuck in a groove though the dynamics have clearly changed. The UAE has gone upmarket with nationality/colour increasingly taking precedence. The old feeling exists no more and the need-based relationship has irreparably cracked, as it was bound to one day.

In fact, the big question for any Asian expat is, do you evolve, expand your horizons and move on to add value in your own country and elsewhere globally, or continue to desperately cling on to a fast dissappearing legacy in UAE? The clock is ticking!!

Thats good news
Posted by Talal, Dubai, UAE on Saturday 11 July 2009 at 01:28 UAE time


Hopefully it will double up including other job categorizes

?
Posted by kevin on Friday 10 July 2009 at 14:40 UAE time


50,000 to 150,000...wow i hope they didnt publish vague figures?

View all comments (15) >>

Click here to post a comment

Add your Comment All posts are sent to the administrator for review and are published only after approval. ArabianBusiness.com reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic. Arabian Business would like to point out that only comments relevant to the story will be published. Any containing personal insults or inappropriate language will not be approved.
Name *
Remember me on this computer
Email *	(Your email address will not be published)
City
Country
Subject *
Comment *
Notify me of further comments
Enter the words above *
Please click post only once - your comment will not be published immediately.

MORE FROM ARABIANBUSINESS.COM