Anxiety has gripped lakhs of homes of Non-Resident Indians as the strict implementation of Nitaqat, a stringent Saudization programme in Saudi Arabia, is set to lead to loss of jobs of millions of expatriates there, a major chunk of them Indians. The time given for institutions in Saudi Arabia to comply with the Nitaqat programme had ended on Wednesday.
Considering the gravity of the situation, the Union Ministry for Non-Resident Indian Affairs has reportedly instructed the Indian Ambassador in Saudi Arabia to examine the possibilities of rehabilitating Indian victims of the programme in the Kingdom itself. It is also planning to give assistance to State to rehabilitate those returning from Saudi Arabia in this context.
Implementation of Nitaqat, a programme by which all firms have to employ a minimum number of Saudi nationals, would lead to loss of jobs of over two million expatriates, a good percentage of them Indians, in Saudi Arabia. A big victim of the Saudi move would be Kerala as tens of thousands of Malayalees working in Saudi Arabia are standing to lose their jobs.
Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Thursday wrote an urgent letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking his intervention in the matter. Pointing out that Kerala was sure to be hit badly by Nitaqat, Chandy asked Singh to take up the matter with Riyadh and to seek some liberal approach.
As per the programme, which classifies registered firms into four categories — Blue, Green, Yellow and Red — on the basis of compliance, companies with more than nine workers should have a minimum of 10 per cent Saudi nationals and their appointment should be under the employment conditions, including payment, prescribed by the Government there.
Those classified as Red (non-compliant category) cannot get the work permits of their expatriate employees renewed. These workers will have to leave Saudi Arabia. Keralites in Saudi Arabia say that about 2.5 lakh small and medium firms of the total 18 lakh licensed firms there fall in the Red category. Also, they do not have the resources to comply with the norm.
As work permit is mandatory for getting residential permits in Saudi Arabia, expatriates would be termed illegal residents when they are unable to get their permits renewed and the only option left before them will be to leave the kingdom or get deported. As per unconfirmed reports, many such workers have already returned to Kerala from Saudi Arabia.
Even in institutions that comply with the Saudization programme, expatriates can work only under sponsors and this will affect lakhs of expatriates working under Free Visas. Reports reaching from Saudi Arabia say that the Jawazat Police (passport cops) have been conducting raids to identify expatriates who are not working under sponsors.
As per informal estimates, there are about 2.75 lakh small scale institutions in Saudi Arabia run by benami expatriates under licences taken in the name of Saudi nationals. Nitaqat would affect them also. Thousands of Malayalees are engaged in such businesses and almost all the workers in such small enterprises are Malayalees.
If Nitaqat is implemented in full measure in Saudi Arabia it is sure to hit the Kerala economy, which depends heavily on the money repatriated by the Gulf Malayalees, badly. A huge downslide in the returns from the Gulf, which amounts to over 160 per cent of the total revenue income of the State, will be the direct result of such a development, economists say.
“The impact of this would be felt in all service sectors of Kerala that depend on the money repatriated from the Gulf. It would also affect the tens of thousands of families that depend on the money sent by their kin employed in the Nitaqat Red Zone in Saudi Arabia. Most of these families are in the Malabar region,” said Vincent CV, a Doha-based Chartered Accountant.