Doha: Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muralidharan. In response to the MPs’ question, V said that more than half of them were from countries including UAE and Saudi Arabia. Muralidharan informed the congregation.
1.52 lakh expatriates from UAE and 1.18 lakh from Saudi Arabia returned to India during the Covid lockdown. The minister clarified that this report is based on e-migrate data under the Ministry of External Affairs.
At the same time, Bahrain is the Gulf country with the least number of expatriate returnees (11,749 people) in this phase of severe Covid. Other Gulf countries count as Kuwait (51,206), Oman (46,003) and Qatar (32,361).
The minister also informed that 1,41,172 Indians went to the Gulf in search of employment during the same period. Qatar (51,496) had the largest number of expatriate returnees. During this period, only 13,567 people came to the UAE, which provides employment to the largest number of Indians. The numbers of Indians who have arrived in other Gulf countries are Bahrain (8158), Kuwait (10,160), Oman (21,340) and Saudi Arabia (36,451).
MPs Benny Bahnan, A. In response to the question of Chellakumar, Anto Anthony, Adoor Prakash and Muhammad Faisal, Minister V. Muralidharan informed the House about this.
Due to the announcement of lockdown and travel restrictions following the spread of Covid, the return journey of expatriates followed the decision to return to their families, following the loss of employment.
The Minister also stated that the return journey of the expatriates has been secured through the Vande Bharat Mission conducted by the Ministry of External Affairs in collaboration with the Ministry of Aviation.
The minister also informed that 17,848 complaints have been received regarding non-availability of wages or salary during the period from March 2020 to December 2021.