Wars, conflicts, and labour shortage have created risky jobs around the world; and, unfortunately, Indians too have become cannon fodder in the recruitment game. Gangs promising lucrative salaries have been luring our youth for what they believe are jobs as ‘helpers’ in Moscow. What is emerging, though, is these young people are being shipped to the Ukraine frontline, given basic training, and forced to fight alongside the Russian army.
Desperate phone calls have revealed that many have been injured or even killed; while those trapped in Russia are pleading with the government to bring them home. Another batch of Indian emigres has been lured to Israel, where black-listed Palestinians are now being replaced on menial jobs by Indians and Filipinos. In recent Hezbollah strikes in Israel, three Indians have been killed in two separate incidents.
Another example of the tragic devaluation of Indian lives is Taiwanese labour minister Hsu Ming-Chun seeking workers from Christian pockets in the northeast who, she said, had “the looks and dietary habits similar to those in Taiwan”. Narrowing down the search for manpower to ‘looks’ and ‘dietary habits’ smacks of sheer racism.
One shudders to imagine the treatment that awaits our recruits in Taiwan’s factories. More important, is there any protection spelled out in the ‘migration and mobility’ agreement India has signed with Taiwan? When Israel’s war on Gaza broke out from October 7 last year, the traditional Palestinian labour in the country was benched, and Israeli scouts landed in India looking for hands to fill the gap.
Shockingly, government authorities, instead of raising the red flag of the risks involved in a war zone, laid out the red carpet. In the case of the Indians trapped on the Ukraine frontline, the Ministry of External Affairs has conceded it was in the know of these forced mercenary practices; and it has vowed to bring those stuck in Russia back home. This is, however, a case of shutting the barn door after the horse has bolted! A series of preventive and protective practices needs to be put in place to safeguard our people working abroad.
Warnings not to fall prey to dangerous assignments and the rooting out of unscrupulous gangs must be an ongoing process. It is not that the government does not have the intel. The problem is how much we value the lives of those who seek out jobs at any cost.