BENGALURU: There has been a surge in people from Karnataka opting to work in Israel this year, according to the Regional Passport Office (RPO) here.
The Israeli government approached India two months ago seeking 10,000 construction workers and 5,000 caregivers.
In November last, it was made public that Israel’s construction sector was looking at hiring thousands of Indian workers to replace one lakh Palestinians. There has been a marked surge in requests from people of Karnataka for the Police Clearance Certificate Certificate (PCC), a mandatory requirement in many countries for jobs, according to RPO.
‘Demand for PCCs went up after conflict’
“We issue PCCs to many countries in West Asia, Australia, the UK and now there is a demand from people to go to Israel. We have issued nearly 2,200 such certificates so far this year for people from Karnataka headed to work in Israel. We issued only 1,576 such certificates in 2023,” Regional Passport Officer (Bengaluru) Krishna K told TNIE.
It is learnt that the demand for PCCs went up last year too after the conflict between Israel and Hamas began.
“Around 25,000 PCCs have been issued so far this year with demand from people from the state to go to Kuwait (6,000), Israel (2,200), Australia (2,000) and the UK (1,382). However, there has been a dip in those seeking such certificates to go to the UK. In all, 2,396 certificates were issued in 2023 and only 1,382 so far this year,” he said.
On May 9, 2023, a statement from the Israeli foreign ministry said that an agreement had been signed to permit 34,000 workers from India for construction and 8,000 for nursing sectors. Krishna said RPO will create a new record in issual of passports this calendar year.