Special Report: 'A Tragedy Making in The Gulf'

Indians working in Saudi Arabia heaved a sigh of relief as King Abdullah intervened last week to stop the drive launched by the ministries of home and labour to weed out illegal immigrants. But the respite is only for three months. 
    
The expatriate workforce has been given three month’s time to regularise the residency documents. Any developments related to migrant workforce in Saudi Arabia or any other Gulf country is acutely felt in India as there are nearly 60 lakh Indian living there either as workers or their dependents. One third of these Indians are working in Saudi Arabia followed by the UAE which hosts over 18 lakh Indian workers. Of the Indian workers in Saudi Arabia, people from two states—Kerala and Andhra Pradesh—are counted among the largest groups. There are about 6 lakh people from AP, a large number of them from Hyderabad. 
    
Indians in the Gulf generally enjoy the reputation of being a law-abiding workforce. However, there are notable exceptions, particularly with regard to rules governing the expatriate community. The meaning of the term 'illegal immigrant' in Saudi Arabia is wrapped in shades of grey and does not have a black and white definition. It is generally used in relation to a foreigner who is considered to have 'violated' immigration and labour laws. But what is violation? Let’s take a look at the following example which was published in Saudi Gazette, an English language newspaper published from Jeddah: 
    

Dr Khaled M Batarfi , an academic who has lived most of his life in Saudi Arabia. His son was born in the Kingdom and has recently finished his bachelor’s degree from a university in Jeddah. On turning 18 he had to transfer his kifala or sponsorship from his father to a new sponsor as the rules demanded. He found a Saudi woman who was kafeel or sponsor to 117 other persons like him. He had to pay her a certain amount as fee. But as luck would have it, his sponsor suddenly died leaving him scurrying for another kafeel. Around the same time, the government exercise to streamline the irregular labour force started. The report does not say what happened to the lad but obviously he faces an uncertain future. 
    
Since the oil boom, the Kingdom has been trying to implement the Saudiisation programme that aims at providing jobs to all Saudi nationals. This ambitious programme has some inbuilt flaws which are generally not discussed. At the same time, what is played out prominently is the violation of the rules by the foreign workforce. 
    

Though the violations are of many kinds, there are two key ones. One is of migrants overstaying after expiry of their visa period, and the other is the system of Azad or free visa which has been in vogue for decades. The free visa system is the main source of income for many Saudis as the visas are sold to intending candidates at exorbitant rates. It is also one of the legal means for a foreigner to enter the kingdom, search for a decent job and keep earning as long as possible. Both these factors work against the interests of the unemployed Saudi youth. 
    
The tragic part of this story is that the Andhra Pradesh government is absolutely unprepared for the sudden return of its workers from the Gulf. Maybe it is waiting for its workers to be uprooted from jobs there, languish in prisons and then return home as destitute. The tragedy which appears to be in the making can still be avoided if the state government sends a delegation of officials and experts to the Kingdom to assess the situation there and prepare an emergency plan. It has only three months to do that.