• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

G. Srinivasan

The emigration of unskilled and semi-skilled workers to Gulf countries and the more recent incidents of immigrants being sent back for breach of contract raised a brief but lively exchange of views in the Lok Sabha yesterday.

During Question Hour, the Bahujan Samajwadi Party member, Mr Brajesh Pathak, sought to ascertain whether Saudi Arabia and some other countries had begun to send back Indians working there. The Minister for Overseas Indians Affairs, Mr Vayalar Ravi, said that 2,000 Indians had been repatriated from Oman this year for over-stay.

He added that a substantial number of people going to these countries for employment were travelling on tourist visas.

He said efforts were on to regulate the so-called recruiting agencies, which send workers on such visas.

The licences of 29 so-called recruiting agencies have been suspended, 18 cancelled and action initiated in as many as 79 companies.

BJP member Suresh Prabhu and DMK member Bhavani Rajendran, made a request for incentives for emigrants to Gulf countries.

This prompted the Speaker, Mr Somnath Chatterjee, to remark wryly: "I don't know of any incentive for human export!"

But Mr Ravi, the Minister from Kerala, could ill afford to be so blunt. The issue of setting up a corpus fund for welfare of workers who return would be examined, he said. Samajwadi Party member Ms Jayaprada, said the Government should extend to the Gulf countries the kind of labour agreements it had entered into with Belgium and other European countries.

The Minister said the matter was being pursued with Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Oman, for the promotion and welfare of Indian workers settled in these countries.

More Stories on : Employment | NRIs | Impressions

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
New agenda for old friends

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line