India is concerned about the Nitaqat policy introduced recently by the Saudi Arabian Government that promotes employment of Saudi nationals in the kingdom that has resulted in some of the 2.45 million Indians living there returning to India, officials of the External Affairs Ministry said on Wednesday.
The policy dates back to September 2011 and stipulates that 5-30 per cent of employees in a Saudi company should be citizens of the country. It has caused considerable concern in Kerala and Karnataka, States from where a number of Indians travel to Saudi Arabia for jobs.
“We haven’t seen a significant increase in the numbers of people coming back to India” because of the Nitaqat, Foreign Ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said. PTI