One of the sessions at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Kochi on Monday was specifically devoted to the problems faced by Indian nationals in the Middle East. Rediff.com's Rajendran P reports.
Death and taxes were among the prominent issues that came up in a session at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas event in Kochi on Monday, devoted to the problems faced by Indians in the Middle East.
But there were other issues, not as permanent, though, that were discussed -- including the issue of trafficking of women, the money embassies put aside to help Indian nationals in trouble and the pernicious price-gouging that Air India allegedly engages in.
According to a person who identified himself as Murlitharan from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the delays involved in getting back to India the bodies of people who died in Saudi Arabia, which demands more paperwork than other countries in the region, could last between six days and three weeks. So family members would spend time they would otherwise be mourning in negotiating a bureaucratic labyrinth. Some bodies might lay there for months, he said.
P Rajeev, an MP from Kerala, said New Delhi needed to work with the embassies in the Middle East to set up a single window process to expedite the transfer of the bodies from Saudi Arabia to India.
Others spoke of the need for counselling and insurance services, particularly for the poor and unprepared, regarding what to expect and do in countries with complex rules.
One Siddique Hasan spoke of the plight of people being jailed for small causes or because vindictive employers decided to file false charges, as often happens. Such people even needed money for tickets home after serving their sentence, he said, adding that a process was required to address these issues.
Others, he said, needed help after suffering accidents.
Hasan also argued that given the large number of people from Kerala working in the Gulf, the embassies need to have welfare officers who could speak Malayalam.
One suggestion called for an online voting system to ensure emigrants from India had a say in the electoral process.
Ranji Kurien, an HR consultant based in Kuwait, complained his clients suffer because the embassy is slow to process papers for their staff. This, he said, means a loss of both opportunities and business.
He and others also complained about the lack of adequate air services to Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi, and the fact that Air India raises prices or goes on strike during the crucial June-July vacations.
Soman Baby from Bahrain said that while the ambassadors who attended the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas every year, the actual decision-makers do not. He asked why Ajit Singh, the civil aviation minister, had not attended the event.
Vayalar Ravi, the overseas Indian minister, said that he had asked Singh, but since the minister belongs to another party (Rashtriya Lok Dal) that is part of the ruling United Progressive Alliance coalition, he could not put pressure him.
One person, who did not identify himself as a recruiter at first, spoke of the problems nurses face in getting experience certificates, required to get jobs in the Middle East, from hospitals they had worked at.
This compelled them to fake their experience certificates despite actually having the years of work to show for it, he said, suggesting that hospitals be compelled to give the required certificates.
Something about the recruiter's comments made Ravi quiz him further about what he did for a living.
When Ravi learned he was a recruiter, he demanded the man to get off the microphone and, to applause, excoriated him, saying he did not deal with recruiters because they exploited Indian migrants, leaving them to fend for themselves in a foreign land.
An elderly non-resident Indian, who said he has been in the Middle East for more than 40 years, noted those wishing to return to India should be given lifetime tax amnesty as perpetual NRIs instead of just a year. Now many people were reluctant to move over with their money, fearing the attendant loss in NRI status, he said.
During the discussion, many people lapsed into Malayalam, the language spoken by most expatriates working in the Middle East, prompting a protest from Manpreet, a media representative from Australia.
She said that she too wanted to know if the problems NRIs face in the Middle East are different from those faced by Indians in Australia, but could not do so because of the language barrier.
Image: Minister of Overseas Affairs Vayalar Ravi attending a session at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Kochi on Monday
Photograph: Hitesh Harisinghani/Rediff.com
