HYDERABAD: A Hyderabad-based woman Tuesday approached External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to rescue her husband stranded in Saudi Arabia without food and accommodation, after the shutdown of the firm he worked for there. Incidentally, the day of her complaint coincides with the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas, a day to mark the contribution of overseas Indian community towards the country’s development. He worked as a mechanic in a Saudi-based company Al Omraniah, which shut down in 2016.
Fahmeeda Unnisa’s husband Shaik Inayat’s is not a one-off case of a Telanagana immigrant’s suffering going unheard for months or even a year in the Gulf. An estimated number of 10 lakh migrants from Telangana contribute to remittance in crores to the state fund every month. However, there are thousands of Telanagana workers living in the Gulf countries including Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates(UAE) who suffer atrocities at the hands of their employers or endure bonded labour and physical and mental exploitation. Such is the state of affairs of atrocities against migrants in these countries that as many as 600 bodies of Telangana workers have arrived in the state in the past three years, as per police records.
When asked why the issues of so many workers have gone unaddressed for years, the stakeholders concerned and migrant rights activists from Telanagana pointed at the state’s failures in forming an NRI policy. Shockingly, the NRI cell in Telanagana government also failed to provide data on the number of grievances by Indian immigrants across Gulf countries registered with it last year.
Calling the NRI cell as an ornamental department of the state government, activists said there is no proper mechanism in the state till date to address the issues of immigrants in the Gulf. Bheem Reddy, an activist who has been working for the welfare of such victims for years, said, “Our people who are compelled to live in inhuman conditions and have been denied even their basic rights for years in the Gulf have no official body to approach. They have to either rely on help from NGOs, politicians or wait for the reply from either the Embassy officials or stakeholders in the state. Our present External Affairs Minister has also respnded to the pleas of many on several occasions. But considering how challenging the issue is, the few ways in which help is reaching out our people in the Gulf is not enough.”
Asserting that the situation cannot be properly addressed until a well defined NRI policy is brought in place, he said that the Indian Embassies in the six Gulf countries should also be strengthened. Hydeabad-based Ambassador of India and retired IFS officer BM Vinod Kumar said, “Most embassies which are entrusted with the responsibility of addressing the issues of Indians are understaffed. There is hardly anyone they have who knows Telugu. Hence, the officials often fail to understand what a Telugu immigrant is trying to convey.”
He added that these Embassies lack data of identity most of the Telanagana workers fail to register with them when they go for work in the Gulf.