Gulf dream sours, Indian expatriates face the axe

The Nitaqat programme in Saudi Arabia, aimed at ‘Saudising’ workplaces in the Arabian kingdom by ensuring a minimum of 10 per cent of employees in every firm there are its nationals, is spreading anxiety in several lakhs of Non-Resident Indian families in India. It is time for New Delhi, and especially Kerala, to worry about the possibility that this is, perhaps, the start of the end of the Gulf Dream. As per the Saudi programme, companies failing to comply with Nitaqat will have to shut shop and free visa holders. Expatriates without sponsors cannot work and outsiders cannot run businesses on nationals' licences. Nitaqat has already become operational for all practical purposes and the first tragic signs are obvious, with hundreds of people reaching Indian airports in the past four to five days from Saudi cities. Worst hit by the Saudi labour-economic perestroika will be Kerala, known generally as a ‘money order economy’, surviving on wealth repatriated from outside, mostly from the Gulf where at least 3.5 million Malayalees work. A minimum of over 1,50,000 Keralites working in Saudi Arabia, where they are half-a-million strong, are expected to leave or be deported thanks to Nitaqat. It is a heavy blow to the expatriates there as Saudi Arabia had served as a safe haven for migrants when Dubai was ripped apart in October-November 2009, by the so-called economic bubble-burst. Reports from Saudi cities say that numerous Indians, particularly Keralites, have gone into hiding, fearing searches by Internal Security officials and the Jawazat Police (passport cops). The impact on Kerala, whose NRI remittances come to 160 per cent of its total revenue, is already visible. Since the start of Nitaqat in end-2011, the NRI deposits in Malappuram, the district that is going to be worst hit by the programme, have seen a dip of over 16 per cent. Despite all this, the Governments in Kerala and the Centre appear unperturbed. No concrete steps have so far been taken to safeguard the welfare of the people who toil in the Gulf deserts and send money back to India.

Union Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi admitted that there was little he could do, that his Ministry did not even have the exact figures of those who would be affected. Well, it’s his job to know those details. Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy wrote to the Prime Minister, as he used to do whenever there was an issue that called for urgent intervention, and his responsibility ended there! Union Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahmed talked with the Saudi Foreign Minister and the only assurance he got was that those who abide by the rules will face no problems. Even these official responses came only after the Nitaqat compliance deadline ended though the move had started 17 months ago and New Delhi had been informed of it in advance. Despite the fact that these expatriates have been sending home billions of rupees every year, the rulers here have never bothered to devise any programme to use that money productively for them and for the country. And if they do not turn serious about this now, there will be no time left for that. Because, more Gulf countries — Kuwait, Oman, etc — are on the same path as that of Saudi Arabia.