Emigration: Ban looms on visiting visas

The conference is being attended by HOMs from the Gulf Coordination Committee (GCC) countries,Jordan,Libya,Yemen,Malaysia and Maldives.

Ravi said his ministry is holding consultations with other ministries on the policy changes and once they are completed these changes will be taken to the Cabinet for approval.

The Minister announced that the Indian Community Welfare Fund (ICWF) operating in the Missions of 48 countries would now be extended to all other missions abroad so that it could come in handy to get Indian prisoners released from jails in host countries and in times of emergencies or casualties.

“The initiative is to see to it that nobody suffers due to lack of money,” he added.

Noting that one of the major issues concerning Persons of Indian Origin and Indian workers abroad was that of illegal emigration.

“Whenever we take measures to curb illegal emigration,they (emigrants) find new ways to overcome this. Of particular concern is the misuse of the visit visa provisions,mostly by women,who go there for two or three months and stay on to work after surrendering their passports. They thus become indentured labourers. Visit visa is the major problem the embassies are facing,” Ravi said.

The travel agents,he said,instigate the women to go abroad on visit visas and thus they are caught in the web.

The Minister said the government was looking at ways to curb the trend and hence the new Emigration Bill and policy changes were in the offing.

Suggesting that such illegal emigration could be checked at Indian airports,he said the emigration officers should take it more seriously.

Another suggestion under consideration of the ministry,Ravi said,was abolition of sponsorship for visit visas,which was being considered by two of the GCC countries at present.

“I believe sponsorship is a kind of a deal between agents from here and the host countries and then share the money paid by the labourers. By abolition,we can help the Indian workers so that they are free from the contracts once the period of agreement is over,” he added.

Ravi said the Indian Workers Resource Centre (IWRC) had launched a 24-hour helpline to enable Indian labourers to get in touch with the Missions in host countries at all times when they are facing trouble.

Another issue flagged by Ravi was the lack of insurance for labourers working abroad. He said as most of the workers did not have insurance,their families back home were unable to get any compensation or financial assistance if any mishap happened in host countries.

“In India,the situation is different. We have means,laws and mechanisms to compensate the workers. But abroad,the corporates have their own policies,” he said.

Ravi said the government had already signed a Memorandum of Understanding with five GCC countries and was in discussion with Saudi Arabia for taking steps towards providing insurance to the Indian workers there.

Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur,in her address,said Indian workers were an important constituent of overseas Indian community.

“But unfortunately,these workers face several problems on account of archaic systems in the host governments and insufficient policy framework at our end,” she said.

Kaur said the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs had taken noteworthy initiatives and efforts to help the Indian Missions abroad to help the community.

“But the point I would like to make here is that our efforts are mainly directed towards the symptoms rather than attacking on genesis of the problem,” she added,seeking deliberations on basis issues so that Missions do not have to deal with similar problems in future.

She also called for some amendments in the Pravasi Bharatiya Bima Yojana so that the insurance cover could serve its purpose.

Seeking suggestions for regulation of travel agents,simplification of emigration processes and modification of passport and consular rules,Kaur said it was the responsibility of the Missions to play a proactive role and give special emphasis on satisfactory resolution of the problems of the workers in their countries.

Raising the issue of a large number of Indians languishing in prisons abroad for long,she said neither do they have sufficient monetary resources to defend themselves nor any knowledge about how to proceed further.

“In such cases,the Missions can play an important role by guiding them suitably in consultation with the Ministry and the concerned families,” she said and was supported by Ravi.