An estimated 150,000 Indian expatriate workers have returned home from the Gulf following the financial downturn, the country’s lower house was told on Wednesday.
India’s minister for overseas Indian affairs Vayalar Ravi informed the parliament that an estimated 50,000 to 150,000 workers, employed in the Gulf have returned to India due to delay in execution of projects in the region, according to news agency reports. In his written reply to a question, the minister told the Lok Sabha that the workers in the UAE seemed to be most affected.
He said most of the workers have returned to India on leave without pay with the expectation that they would be able to go back to the Gulf country once the situation improves.
However, Ravi added that Indian Missions in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar have informed that there have been some job losses in these countries.
“Information received from Indian Missions in Afghanistan, Syria, Sudan, Brunei, Libya, Jordan and Lebanon indicate that there is no report of Indians affected by the recession,” The Financial Express quoted the minister as saying.
The Indian embassy in the UAE could not give precise figures of returnees, but indicated that the number was very large, according to the IANS newswire.
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