Has UAE stopped luring Indians?
An estimated 1.5 lakh Indian workers
have come back home from the United Arab Emirates due to economic crisis and
recession, the Lok Sabha was told on Wednesday.
Replying to a question, Overseas Indian
Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi informed the House that an estimated 50,000 to
1,50,000 workers have returned to India as result of the delay in execution of
projects due to economic slowdown and recession in the UAE.
He said most of the workers have
returned to India on leave without pay with the expectation that they would be
able to go back to the Gulf country once the situation improves.
Ravi said while Indian Missions in
Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar have informed that there has been
some job losses in these countries, some Indians have also returned from
Malaysia due to economic slowdown.
"Information received from
Indian Missions in Afghanistan, Syria, Sudan, Brunei, Libya, Jordan and Lebanon
indicate that there is no report of Indians affected by the recession,"
the Minister said.
Noting that slowdown has affected
almost all sections of people in the US, Ravi said, "Indians working in
the US are mostly professionals and the extent of job losses by Indians is,
therefore, slightly mitigated by their indispensability to their
organisation."
Replying to a separate question,
Ravi said the Government has already strengthened the Indian embassies in the
US and UAE by posting counselors to render assistance to the Indian workers.
"They will be assisted by local
Indian professionals in extending legal, medical and financial counselling to
the workers in need," he added.
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