The deadline – of July 3 — for Indians and other expatriates to either meet legal requirements to continue staying in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or exiting is fast approaching. There are no indications about an extension.
Of the total of about 2 million Indians in Saudi Arabia (who contributing to its development process) at least 100,000 are counted as ‘illegal aliens’ living in contravention of immigration and labour laws. There are reports of long queues of workers outside the Indian diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia who have come to seek relief braving the scorching desert sun.
Feeling the heat of the government drive, 20,000 Saudi employers have returned the passports of their reportedly runaway workers to the Indian missions. At the same time the missions are receiving hundreds of applications daily for emergency travel documents. Obviously many workers see no peaceful future in the Kingdom without legalizing their stay.
The fascinating story of Indian workers landing on the shores of oil rich Saudi Arabia is over four-decades old. They were among the first groups of foreign workers who realized the potential of making it good as the Kingdom launched on an unprecedented and unending drive for development. During this period their numbers grew from a mere few thousands in the 1970s to a whopping 2 million now. Some Indian workers in the Kingdom are the wards of those who went there with the first waves of immigrants in the early 1970s and 1980s. With the fathers retiring their children who are better educated, found more lucrative employment .
With the shine of Eldorado coming under thick clouds in Iran following the Islamic revolution there in 1979, Saudi Arabia emerged as the biggest host to foreign workers. Nine million found employment and are sending a staggering about $14 billion to their homes every year. The remittances to India every year from Saudi Arabia is estimated to be about $3.5 billion.
Of late Saudi Arabia has woken up to hard domestic realities. Now it wishes to cut down unemployment levels drastically among its youth by pushing out foreign workers. By downsizing the labour market for foreigners it would also like to save on the huge outflow of money that is being seen as an avoidable strain on its economy. To achieve these objectives the first target of the Saudi government is to weed out illegal workers and their dependants. How far it will succeed is debatable but what matters to India is the fate of its workers there. Saudi Arabia is the only country which is host to the largest number of Indian passport holders outside India. Therefore, the concerns are genuine and immediate.
Foreign minister Salman Khurshid, during his visit to the Kingdom last week has made two clear points. One, that he has acknowledge the validity of the drive launched by the Saudi authorities against illegal immigrants. Two, which is harsher, is the pinning down of the responsibility of rehabilitating the returning workers on the state governments. He said there is little the central government would do to resettle the returnees.
The largest number of Indians whose residential and work documents are not in order are from Uttar Pradesh followed by Kerala and Andhra Pradesh though a break up is not available.
The sad part of this unfolding tragedy is that the government of Andhra Pradesh, in spite of being a recipient of billions of dollars of remittances from its workers from Saudi Arabia has done nothing for them. Unlike Kerala, it has sent no fact-finding team to Saudi Arabia. It has not even appointed a cell or an officer to find out the number of workers that would be returning home in desperation. It is obvious that the majority of these returnees would be from the lower economic strata of the society with hardly any savings to fall back upon.
The criminal indifference of the government to the impending socio-economic woes of returning workers is unparalleled. Who attaches any value to those forced to look for employment opportunities away from their homes, away from their kith and kin, in foreign lands?
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