Focus back on plight of Indian workers after two die in Saudi
Workers didn’t get the medical insurance facility as their residence permits had expired would have been alive. He was only 56,” said Singh.
The iqama (residence permit) of both the dead workers had expired two years ago and as a result they were deprived of medical insurance facility.
HT spoke to some of these workers who are facing similar issues of not getting their dues and passports.
An employee of the same company who hails from Punjab but doesn’t want to be named said “For us, it is the saving of a lifetime. How can we go back home without our dues? Almost all of us have our passports with our employers. What can we do.? So far, close to 5,000 Indians have come back after retrenchments in Gulf. As per Saudi rules, a no
objection certificate is necessary for the retrenched worker to go home.
It is a difficult situation for the government too. In August, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said the Indian workers, who have lost their jobs in Saudi Arabia, should file their claims for unpaid dues with their employers and come back home soon and said the government will bear the cost of their return.
“Indian workers in Saudi Arabia please file your claims and return home. We will bring you back free of charge. When Saudi government settles the issue with the companies which have closed down, your dues will also be paid,” Swaraj had said.
Thousands of Indian workers have lost their jobs due to slowdown in Saudi economy, caused by both low oil prices and cut in spending by the government. The Indian government had requested the Saudi authorities to give the unemployed Indian workers exit visas without NoC from employers.
A US grand jury indicted a man on Thursday for hate crime charges for attacking an Indian-descent man at a bar in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, just days after the November 8 presidential election mistaking him for Muslim from the Middle East.
“Things are different now … I don’t want you sitting next to me, you people,” the accused, Jeffrey Allen Burgess, told the victim Ankur Mehta, according to Penn Live, a local news site, before assaulting him.
The incident took place on November 22, not long after the election of President Donald Trump when the US was hit by a wave of hate crimes against minorities such as Hispanics, African Americans and Jewish people. In the days since, there have been more attacks on Indians mistaken for Middle-Easterners. The worst of them took place in Olathe, Kansas, when engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla was fatally shot and his friend was wounded, also at a bar.
In the November 22 incident, Burgess began by hurling ethnic slurs at Mehta who was on his electronic device and had his headphones on.
The police said Burgess then “launched an unprovoked attack on the victim”. Witnesses have told police the accused had held Mehta by the head and punched him, according to a local report.
Mehta was taken to a hospital with a loose tooth and a cut to his upper lip. The police said Burgess was arrested on suspicion of ethnic intimidation, simple assault, harassment and public drunkenness. The US attorney’s office for the western district of Pennsylvania announced on Thursday the grand jury’s indictment of Burgess. Before a court appearance, Burgess is reported to have blamed alcohol for the incident. “I’m not that kind of person ... It happened and I’m remorseful about it,” he said.
If convicted, Burgess, 54, faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison or a $250,000 fine or both.