Searches for illegal migrant workers reportedly continued in Dammam on Sunday despite Saturday’s Royal order of deferment of raids under Nitaqat, the Saudisation move, even as claims by the Government of India that it was its efforts that had led to the announcement of the three-month reprieve were proved wrong.
Reports reaching from Saudi Arabia said on Sunday that Saudi labour Department officials and Jawazat cops (passport police) continued raids on Sunday in pockets where many immigrants without valid documents were working and staying. They said 20 such immigrants, including seven Keralites, had been taken into custody in Sunday’s searches.
Those taken into custody on Sunday were expatriates working there without proper documents or those who had not been working under their original sponsors. They were caught when they set out for work from their rooms, where they were hiding for the past several days following the raids, after hearing the news about the three-month deferment of Nitaqat actions.
The Saudi Government had launched the Nitaqat programme, aimed at ensuring a minimum of 10 per cent participation of nationals in the country’s employment scene, with searches for expatriates working illegally and without proper documents. The move was feared to lead to the expulsion of over 20 lakh expatriates including 1.75 lakh Keralites.
Malayalees working in Dammam, capital of the Saudi Eastern Province where Keralites are in large numbers, said that the labour camps housing expatriates with improper documents were under the constant observation of the Jawazat police and labour officials and this was forcing them not to venture out.
“Several Malayalees and others are still hiding in their rooms out of fear of being arrested the moment they get out,” said Haneefa of Ernakulam from Dammam. “It seems the Royal order on deferment of searches has not reached this part of the country. Almost all small shops run by expatriates are closed today,” he said.
However, reports from Jiddah and Riyadh, the other Governorates with concentration of Malayalee workers, said the Nitaqat searches had already been suspended there. Riyadh Governor Amir Khalid Bin Bandar Bin Abdul Aziz had on Thursday ordered a three-month deferment of labour and Home operations against expatriate workers.
Meanwhile, it became obvious that the claims by the Indian Government that its timely intervention was one of the reasons behind the announcement on Saturday of a three-month deferment of Nitaqat raids by King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was proved wrong, as per reports reaching in from the Arabian Kingdom.
Sources with access to Saudi officials said that King Abdullah had ordered the deferment mainly because of the pressures exerted by the various industry chambers in Saudi Arabia who were convinced that the Nitaqat move would throw a spanner in the infrastructure development works there.
It also became clear that the claim by Union Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi that the Indian delegation’s visit to Saudi Arabia to take up the Nitaqat issue with the Government there was being delayed as most of the Saudi Ministers with whom they had to hold discussions were out of that country was not true.
Almost all the Ministers concerned with the Nitaqat programme were reportedly in Saudi Arabia for the past two weeks. Even the King himself had not undertaken any foreign trip in the recent past. “The Indian Ministers are not being sincere about this. Several foreign dignitaries are meeting Ministers here. Why can’t Indians alone get appointmentsIJ” asked a Keralite in Riyadh.