Shri. Vayalar Ravi inaugurates 4th Annual Conference of Head of Missions

Shri Vayalar Ravi, Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs inaugurated the 4th Annual Conference of Head of Missions of GCC Countries, Libya, Malaysia, Yemen and Maldives here today. Addressing the conference, he said that this conference has emerged as an important platform to understand and find solutions to the problems faced by overseas Indian workers and it reinforces our commitment to strive for their better protection and welfare. He said our workers in the Gulf are temporary, contractual workers and they spend several years in harsh living and working conditions, remit most of their savings back home and often return in poor health and with no savings. This is the frightening prospect that thousands of workers returning from the Gulf. He further said it is necessary that we structure an appropriate programme to ensure a reasonable level of financial security on return and to inculcate the practice of thrift for a secure retirement. Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs is working towards establishing a Return and Resettlement Fund that will provide for a contribution based scheme to incentivize the return and resettlement of the overseas worker.

Shri Ravi said that the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs is committed to transforming emigration into a simple, efficient, transparent, orderly and humane process. The Ministry is taking legislative and administrative measures to deal firmly with irregular migration. One of the reasons for irregular migration is the nefarious activities of Indian intermediaries operating from the host countries. Our Missions should get after such unscrupulous elements, collect intelligence and share information with the Indian enforcement agencies so that they could be prosecuted under the Indian Law. He informed that the Ministry is considering replacing the existing Emigration Law by a new Law. The Emigration Management Bill 2009 will shortly be placed before the Cabinet, seeking approval for introducing the Bill in the Parliament.

The Minister also informed that the Indian Community Welfare Funds (ICWF) in the 17 ECR countries and in Maldives has been established. The ICWF is a self-financing mechanism for providing need based and means tested support services to emigrants in distress. He added that the key services such as – a toll free help line, a counseling facility, a shelter for runaway housemaids and a facility to extend contingency based legal, medical and emergency relief assistance are major initiatives taken by the Ministry for protection of Overseas Indian workers. He further said that the Ministry has signed MOUs for bilateral cooperation for protection and welfare of overseas Indian workers with Malaysia, Jordan and all the GCC countries except Saudi Arabia. These MOUs will have optimal impact on the conditions of our workers only if the Joint Working Group meetings are held regularly. He said that our Mission in Saudi Arabia and MEA will continue to make efforts to facilitate early negotiations for a MOU with Saudi Arabia. There is a proposal for similar MOUs with Yemen, Libya and Maldives.

PKM