International
56,700 Indians in Saudi face deportation, says Khurshid
56,700 Indians in Saudi face deportation, says Khurshid
IANS/New Delhi
More than 56,700 Indians face deportation from Saudi Arabia in the next one-and-half months and ten officials have been sent to the kingdom to help the Indian missions prepare emergency certificates for their exit, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said yesterday. |
“As of now, 56,700 Indians have registered with the Indian mission for getting exit permits as they have no valid passports or other travel documents,” Khurshid told a group of Urdu editors here.
He said he would undertake a two-day visit to Saudi Arabia to meet his counterpart Saud al-Faisal and other dignitaries and discuss various bilateral matters including the problems of Indian workers due to the “Nitaqat” policy under which all companies are required to provide 10% of jobs to Saudi youth.
Khurshid said the 10 officials sent to the kingdom will help the missions to prepare no-objection certificates for the Indian workers, adding it is a “cumbersome procedure as we are required to get details of the worker from the district authorities.”
He said this time, more than 4,000 Indian volunteers are helping the missions to complete the formalities, while the missions are working round the clock and have also set up offices in various Saudi cities to facilitate workers to fill up form for the emergency certificates.
The Saudi government has set July 6 as the deadline for all foreign illegal workers to leave the country.
Earlier, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sent Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi, Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahmed and his adviser T K A Nair to the kingdom to sort out problems of Indians who are there either without work permits or valid passports.
The Saudi authorities have assured the Indian government that they will not harass Indian workers because of their good behaviour, and no one will be penalised or sent to jail for violations of these norms if they leave country before the deadline.
A company in Saudi Arabia’s eastern province has said it would hire 5,000 Indian workers affected by the new labour policy.
The Nasser S al-Hajri Corporation (NSH) is holding a two-day recruiting drive in Riyadh, the Arab News reported yesterday.
“We plan to recruit 27 categories of workers, ranging from technicians to project managers,” a company spokesman was quoted as saying.