Centre Plans Major Evacuation For Thousands Of Jobless Indian Workers Stuck In Saudi Arabia

Another airlift from the Middle East
The Indian government is preparing to evacuate more than 10,000 jobless Indian workers who are stuck in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and battling with hunger as they don’t have enough money to buy food. According to The Hindu, the government is arranging exit visas for the workers and Minister of State for External Affairs Gen (Retired) V.K. Singh will travel to Saudi Arabia to bring them back in the next few days. The Consulate General of India in Jeddah has announced that so far, as a part of crisis management, details of 2,500 Indians have been collected by groups of Indian officials working in various labour camps. Sources said that a decision on airlifting the stranded workers will be taken. The consulate in Jeddah distributed more than 15,000 kg of food to their distressed countrymen over the past three days in association with the Indian community.

Unfolding of the crisis
All this is a result of fall in global oil prices that made the Saudi Government compelled to slash spending and putting pressure on the finances of local construction firms. This reciprocated into smaller firms laying off thousands of foreign workers, leaving them without money. Indian officials are now holding talks with Saudi authorities so that they clear the pending salaries of the workers before they are brought back to India. This is not the first time that such an evacuation has been supposed to take place. During the Kuwait War, more than 1,75,000 people were evacuated. In 2015, 6,000 people were evacuated from Yemen. About 30 lakh Indians live and work in Saudi Arabia and a majority of them are blue-collar (relating to manual work, particularly in industries) workers. Today, thousands are workers are not getting paid enough for their relentlessly laborious tasks. They are not getting enough food also.