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In Saudi, workers say not paid for 6 months
NEW DELHI: The news of 10,000 Indians struggling without salaries and food in Saudi Arabia has highlighted the precarious economic situation in the Gulf countries
NEW DELHI: The news of 10,000 Indians struggling without salaries and food in Saudi Arabia has highlighted the precarious economic situation in the Gulf countries that account for around 96% of the annual labour export from India.
Several people stranded in Saudi Arabia say they have not been paid for six months.
According to the Indian government, 3,172 Indian workers in Riyadh have not received their salaries for several months but are getting regular rations.
“We haven’t received our salary for almost six months. It’s a real struggle for me and my family back home,” said Abdul Waheed, a worker at Saudi Oger, a construction company with more than 5,000 Indians on its rolls. Since July 25, the company stopped providing meals to the workers, besides defaulting on their salaries.
The crisis seems to be deepening. “The push in the construction sector was a key aspect of Saudi Arabia’s diversification into the non-oil sector. Most of these contracts came from the government. Because of the sliding oil prices, the government is withdrawing these contracts, leaving Indian workers in the lurch,” said Ginu Zacharia Ommen, honorary associate at the Centre for International Migration, University of Poitiers, France.
Ommen, a former consultant of the overseas Indian affairs ministry, said the cheap labour from countries such as Bangladesh also posed a threat to Indian workers in Saudi Arabia that has 30 lakh Indian workers — the largest Indian passport holders outside the country.
“Migration is here to stay. But what we need is streamlined migration to ensure those who travel to these countries are not duped,” said S Irudayarajan, a migration studies expert.
The government, on its part, is making efforts to resolve the labour woes. Last week, Indian embassy officials in Kuwait negotiated with the management of construction giant Kharafi, where 12,000 Indians went on strike protesting against non-payment of salaries for over three months.
The company agreed to pay the pending wages and the employees are back to work.
States such as Kerala are also planning schemes to rehabilitate the Gulf returnees.
“In over a year, 1,014 people in the state availed various schemes to start their own ventures,” Usha Titus, secretary of the Kerala government’s NRI department said.
The state government has entered into agreements with five banks to provide capital assistance to people returning to India after losing their jobs abroad.
