Swaraj orders food for jobless Indians starving in Saudi Arabia

NEW DELHI: External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj asked the Indian embassy in Riyadh on Saturday to provide free ration to more than 800 nationals starving for

NEW DELHI: External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj asked the Indian embassy in Riyadh on Saturday to provide free ration to more than 800 nationals starving for the past three days in Saudi Arabia after losing their jobs.

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“The employers have not paid wages, closed down their factories. As a result our brothers and sisters in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are facing extreme hardship,” Swaraj tweeted, adding that her colleague, VK Singh, was travelling to Saudi Arabia to “sort out these matters”.

Swaraj said MoS for external affairs, MJ Akbar, was taking up the matter with Kuwait, where the situation “is manageable”.

Her response came following a tweet by a man who posted an image of Indians “starving and thirsty for three days in Jeddah”.

A few workers who lost their jobs at factories run by a Lebanese family in Saudi Arabia said most of those stranded were construction workers from Rajasthan, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Telangana.

“We are helping them with food,” Siraj, a volunteer, said over the phone from Jeddah. Saudi Arabia has the largest number of Indian passport holders outside India. The oil-rich country is often criticised for human rights violations and difficult working conditions for migrant workers, a charge its government denies.

“I assure you that no Indian worker rendered unemployed in Saudi Arabia will go without food. I am monitoring this on hourly basis,” Swaraj tweeted. The Consulate General of India in Jeddah later posted photos of food being provided to the workers .