by Moiz Mannan
Amnesty seekers, deportees, job losers… Is the Gulf ‘dream’ turning into a nightmare? Has this happened overnight? It is just about a month back that we discussed the inadequacy of India’s so-called schemes and knee-jerk measures in dealing with a stream of returnees. Even today, our chief ministers and union ministers concerned with overseas Indians and foreign affairs are talking about engaging foreign governments in taking a lenient stand on Indian workers.
The Minister for Overseas Indians Affairs, Vayalar Ravi, assures the Indian media that he will soon visit Saudi Arabia to ‘discuss’ issues arising out of that country’s Nitaqat policy. Surely, the minister as well as his boss, the honourable prime minister, would know that this policy came as many as five years back. Other Gulf countries too, and quite understandably so, are trying to improve, enhance and utilise their own human resources.
India’s leaders are talking about putting to use their “warm and friendly” ties with the host countries. At best, they will win minor concessions such as avoiding the deportation route so that the workers escape the travel ban to other countries in the region. They might also win some more time. The Saudi authorities had assured to keep the policy’s strict implementation on hold for two more months. Some relief that.
If the fears are unfounded, why have more than 6,000 Indian workers already approached the embassy in Riyadh seeking issuance of Out Pass (Emergency Certificate) to leave the country? This is in addition to thousands of workers who have contacted the Jeddah-based Indian Consulate for outpasses. In the past, Ravi has boasted about the resettlement and pension scheme and other ‘measures’ adopted by the Indian government to take care of returnees. More recently, he called together the chief ministers and senior officials of nine major manpower exporting states and asked them to prepare rehabilitation programmes. Now? According to the World Bank, in 2012 Indians worldwide sent back remittances of $70bn, with around 60 percent of it coming from those working in the Gulf. The number of Indians in the GCC is estimated to be 6.5 million, out of which close to 2.2 million are in Saudi Arabia.
The union minister has said India would pay for the air tickets of job losers. Political units are demanding compensation in various forms including pension, financial aid and medical insurance to the needy sections, assistance to the returnees to start their own self-employment projects etc. If bad comes to worse and there indeed is a huge flow of returnees, we might also find state governments organising job fairs and loan camps… everything to make the traumatised returnees feel like beggars. This simply won’t do. What India now needs is a proper policy framework with regards to its overseas workers.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO), for example, has adopted some initiatives to collect background information on returnee migrant workers. It includes preparation of database, information campaign, counseling on investment opportunities, entrepreneurship development, etc. In Bangladesh, the ILO has conceived a project on development of migration management with the components of (i) Strengthening Policy measures to upgrade institutional frameworks, (ii) Improving Operational Efficiency and (iii) Promoting Social Protection and Support for Migrant Workers, with special attention to returning migrants.
The returning migrants do not need rehabilitation as they do empowerment. Empowerment of the migrant workers may be possible ensuring appropriate social and economic re-integration through i) Liaison with Investment opportunities, ii) Arrangement of loan from banks for SME initiatives, iii) Providing Community Based Training on cooperative basis to the returnee women migrants, iv) Arrangement of re-migration, v) Basic training in employable trades, vi) Assisting in projects like ICT, Real Estate, and other emerging sectors. The organisation has put forth some guidelines that should form an integral part of any policy framework dealing with a country’s migrant workers. The foremost amongst them is skill recognition and qualification reforms. These guidelines speak of involving government agencies responsible for sending and receiving workers, national agencies responsible for recognising migrant workers’ skills, local agencies and non-government organisations providing support services to departing and returning workers, national employers’ and workers’ organisations, private and overseas employment services.
For example, in 2010, the Republic of Korea piloted three services to prepare foreign workers to reintegrate into their home labour markets. The first involved vocational competency development training mainly to assist the workers’ adaptation to the Korean work culture and to improve the productivity of small and medium enterprises. The second was a skills or business venture training for returning workers to encourage workers whose visas were soon to expire to plan for their return and to support their smooth return with business skills. The third was an initiative aimed at employment adjustment education for workers transferring their workplaces. . ILO has proposed the following services to support returning migrant workers: 1. small business advice to ensure that any capital brought back is invested wisely and productively, 2. the development by returning workers of a portfolio of evidence attesting to their new skills and knowledge, 3. employment profiling and placement services so as to gain maximum economic benefit from their new skills, and 4. Advice on self-employment options and on any assistance available, such as training for enterprise development and information on access to credit and loans. Regardless of how serious the Saudi issue is for Indian workers, the government must finally wake up and work out a comprehensive forward-looking policy.the peninsula
