MINISTER OF OVERSEAS INDIAN AFFAIRS (SHRI VAYALAR RAVI)
(a) to (e): A statement is laid on the table of the House
Statement as referred to in reply to the Lok Sabha Starred Question No.193 for 18/12/2013
regarding “Indian Workers Arrested Abroadâ€.
(a) : There are approximately 10 million Non-Resident Indian(NRI) living in 205 countries
abroad. The country-wise details of NRI population as per data available with the Ministry
is in Annexure-A.
(b) and (c) : Some Indian workers have reportedly been arrested allegedly on charges of
violation of visa norms and threatened with deportation primarily in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia(KSA), United Arab Emirates(UAE), Oman and Kuwait. The details are as below: -
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)
More than 1.4 million Indians availed of the concessions given by the Saudi authorities during
the grace period announced by His Majesty King Abdullah on April 6th, 2013. Since April 2013
only 141301 (as on November 27, 2013) Indian workers left for India without facing any penal
action or no ban on their return. There have been no reports of large scale arrest of Indian
workers after the grace period although there may be a few cases of Indians from the very
large Indian community who might fear deportation from Saudi Arabia as they did not avail the
concession during the grace period.
United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Any illegal workers, employees, etc. overstaying on visa or any overseas worker found guilty
in some civil/all criminal cases are deported from the UAE, including Indians. The UAE
Government had declared a 60 day general amnesty for the illegal migrants from December 2012
to February 2013. A total of 7923 Indians availed the amnesty.
The Consular Officers make regular weekly visit to jails in Dubai & Sharjah and fortnightly
/monthly visits to the other jails in the Northern Emirates to render consular assistance to
the prisoners. Travel documents, tickets and financial assistance are provided to the
deportees, on need basis.
Oman
The Royal Oman Police regularly conducts special operations in coordination with the Ministry
of Manpower in a campaign to arrest violators of visa norms of different nationalities from
time to time and detain them for deportation.
The details of such Indian workers who are arrested on violation of visa norms are not provided
by the Omani authorities to the Mission. The detained violators of visa norms are kept in custody
by the Omani authorities for a short period and deported. In case the travel documents of any
detained worker are not available the Jail authorities bring them to the notice of the Indian
Embassy for consular assistance. In case the Indian workers are unable to arrange for the return
passage, the Indian Embassy provides financial assistance in the form of air ticket for returning
back to India.
KUWAIT
As per records, there are a number of Indians in Kuwait facing repatriation proceedings due to
violation of residency/ visa rules. As soon as the cases of illegal migrants are brought to the
Embassy`s notice by the local authorities or by the resident himself/herself, the Embassy takes
expeditious action to facilitate their repatriation in cooperation/coordination with the local
authorities to ensure that they return to India in a safe manner. During early months of 2013,
some Indian nationals were apprehended as they were not having valid residency visa to stay in
Kuwait. The Embassy issued 1,081 Emergency Certificates for their early repatriation to India.
In deserving cases, suitable financial assistance is provided by the Embassy to facilitate
repatriation.
(d) and (e): India maintained high level engagement with Saudi leadership through our Mission
and through Ministerial visits. A Ministerial delegation comprising Minister of Overseas Indian
Affairs, MOS for External Affairs and Advisor to Prime Minister visited Saudi Arabia in April
2013. MOS for External Affairs visited Saudi Arabia in May 2013 and called on Crown Prince,
Second Deputy Premier, Foreign Minister, Interior Minister and Labour Minister.
A Joint Committee was set up at the level of Deputy Minister of Labour and Deputy Chief of
Mission at the Embassy, which interacted daily to follow-up all issues of concern to the Indian
community with the Saudi Arabian authorities. The Mission maintained regular contacts with the
Saudi officials at all levels including seeking consular access to Indians in jails/ deportation
centers, etc.
In Oman whenever any case of harassment is reported to the Indian Embassy, the matter is
immediately reported to the local government for redressal. The issues concerning protection
of the interests of Indian nationals are also flagged during meetings with local dignitaries
and during bilateral meetings like India – Oman Joint Commission, India- Oman Joint Working
Group on Manpower, etc. The Omani authorities allow consular access to the affected Indian
citizens and a team from the Mission regularly visits the detention center to see to the welfare
of the detained Indian citizens and also to arrange their travel documents.
The matter relating to security checking and deportation of Indian nationals was taken up by the
Embassy with the concerned authorities in Kuwait. During the visit of Hon`ble MOS (External
Affairs) in July 2013, the matter was taken up for granting of a grace period (Amnesty) to
Indian expatriates in Kuwait who have violated residency laws to enable them to return to India
without the deportation process.
Similar arrangements exist in other countries also.
In Saudi Arabia, more than 1.4 million Indians availed concessions during the grace period. This
includes 4,34,667 Indians who transferred their services to other firms, who are ‘Nitaqat’
compliant. Additionally 4,81,233 Indians changed their jobs/profession. Apart from this over
4,70,000 Indians got their licenses/job permits renewed.
During the grace period, Embassy of India, Riyadh received 66,729 applications for issue of
Emergency Certificates (ECs), out of which, 41,283 Emergency Certificates were issued.
Similarly, 26,600 applications were received in the Consulate General of India, Jeddha and
out of which, 23,486 ECs were issued. The number of Indians who left on final exit availing
the grace period (as on November 27, 2013) is 1, 41,301.
The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs has (a) waived off a fee of 7 Saudi Riyals for
contribution to Indian Community Welfare Fund (ICWF) to issue Emergency Certificate (EC), (b) allowed Missions/Posts to bear cost of processing of EC of 40 Saudi Riyals per person,
and to provide temporary accommodation, transportation, food etc. to Indian workers in need
and (c) to make use of Indian Community Welfare Fund (ICWF) to meet small penalties/fines in
respect of workers who may require such payments for being permitted to return to India .
The local authorities do not share data on deportation from UAE. However, from Indian Community
Welfare Fund, the Consulate has facilitated air tickets for 261 stranded Indian nationals during
the period January to October 2013. The Consulate had extended financial assistance of
approximately INR 12, 44,007 to 2396 amnesty seekers to return to India.
During last one year (December 2012 to November 2013), the Embassy of India, Muscat helped in
repatriation of 404 Indians by providing them the travel documents and air tickets for their return to India.
