Migration to Gulf nations is slowly picking up

C Shivakumar

Chennai:

Gulf nations are now again attracting the migrant workers from the state as migration to the middle-east nations is picking up, according to Protector of Emigrants, Chennai, Jai Sankar.

Speaking to Express on the sidelines of  Dialogue with Protector of Emigrants here, Sankar said that during the recession there was a dip in the migration to Gulf countries, including United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman.

However, now the migration to these countries is picking up, he said.

Interestingly, Sankar also highlighted the plight of the migrant workers who are being exploited by recruitment sub agents. “While the recruitment agents are licensed but they become the hub for exploitation as they are linked to subagents, who are unlicensed, in each district, taluka and villages. As the intermediaries or sub-agents go up so does the transaction cost for getting the jobs which could even run in lakh,” he says.

Interestingly, Sankar does not have any figures on sub-agents across the state but he adds that a total of 3,500 licensed recruitment agents are there in the state.

He says the Union government is planning mechanisms to control these sub agents by bringing them under surveillance.

It is believed the recruitment process by these agents lack transparency as they would never bother to provide information on how many people are required for any post. “They would inflate the demand for workers from the companies abroad in a bid to extract money by charging hefty sum from the jobseeker besides taking over his or her passport,” says an official working with migrant workers.

As a result, for a vacancy for five or six they would have collected about 50 to 100 passports besides huge amount of money as transaction cost. But then the misery does not end here. The jobseeker, who had given the passport has to wait for a long time to get it back and this also at times is returned only when he pays some amount.

Sankar, under whose tenure a number of reforms are being introduced says that when he gets information of any recruitment process, he makes it a point to check with the Indian embassy officials besides the company on whether such recruitment and the company is genuine. “This resulted in a lot of opposition from the recruitment agents association,” says Sankar.

Interestingly, Sankar’s Chennai office is the first to get ISO certification and sets an example to other Protector of Emigrants in others cities.

He also says that the state police also have a larger role to play in tackling illegal migration. “They should know what to look for during the search and seizure at the premises,” he says