Expats get a chance to air their grievances

Indian Consulate resumes Open House; next session on February 23

The Indian Consulate’s Open House yesterday saw expats in distress visiting the mission to air their grievances.

The first session of the Open House, which the mission resumed after a long gap, saw a higher percentage of executives than workers.

The Consul-General of India in Dubai Vipul announced the plan to resume the monthly grievance redressal forum two weeks ago, mainly with the aim of aiding workers who cannot visit the consulate during weekdays to meet officials.

However, the majority of the people who turned up were Indians holding executive jobs.

Shamsudheen Ballapura, a sales executive, came all the way from Al Ruwais.

His company terminated his service before he could complete two years. “I filed a labour case and the court ordered them to pay me compensation. Since my visa had expired during that time, I am facing overstay fines now.” He said the consuls have agreed to take up the matter with his company.

An engineer from Tamil Nadu and his friend approached the mission to retrieve their passports they had submitted as a guarantee for the employer of the latter when he faced a police case.

“We never imagined [the employer] would vanish putting us in trouble,” said his friend. The two expatriates said they felt reassured having met the diplomats.

The Consul-General, five consuls and their vice-consuls addressed the issues raised by the aggrieved Indians.

Vipul said the forum received mostly cases concerning labour disputes between employees and employers. “I think all of them were quite appreciative of the advice provided at the forum. We will continue to follow up on the cases.”

Talking about the low turnout, he said: “This is just the beginning. We need to make it more popular.” Vipul said the forum will be popularised among the workers through awareness campaigns in worker accommodation clusters conducted by the Indian Workers’ Resource Centre (IWRC).

The next Open House will be held on February 23.