Racial attacks, job loss made Overseas ministry remain on toes

Australia, January 1: Rising safety concerns due to increased Aussie attacks and large-scale job losses made 2009 a tough year for the Overseas Indian Affairs Ministry.

There has been several retrenchments of Indian migrants abroad, especially in the Gulf nations due to the severe global economic crisis. To provide help to the Indian workers, an ‘Indian Community Welfare Funds’ was set up by the overseas ministry. 

And to provide relative job opportunities to the Indian workers working in different foreign countries, the Ministry also began plans to establish Indian Workers Resource Centres in various Emigration Check Required nations apart from launching a package for rehabilitating the Indians who had been handed out pink slips in foreign countries. 

While extending its whole-hearted support to those affected by the debt debacle in Dubai in the month of November in the last year, the Indian government expressed its concerns for nearly two million migrants working in Gulf countries from Kerela. However, the impact on the employment market was not as bad as had been feared. 

That the impact was not as severe as had been anticipated by the experts is clear from the fact that the Indian government did not anticipate any large-scale return of Indian migrants from the Gulf region after the debt debacle. Moreover, the government expressed its faith that the crisis will be over very soon because its effect was far less than the global meltdown experienced in the recent past.

Meanwhile, the number of Indian migrants who returned to home from different Gulf nations was nearly four lakh. 

However, the good news for the Indian government lies in the fact that there has been a significant increase in the remittances made by the Indian workers working abroad. In the year 2009, the remittances rose from USD 43.5 billion (in the year 2008) to USD 46 billion. 

Apart from the debt debacle in the Gulf nations, another thing which sent shock waves to the Overseas Ministry was the attacks on the Indians in Australia. No wonder, the ministry asked the Australian government to do all possible efforts to ensure the safety of nearly 95,000 Indians living in Australia. 

To express its concern and solidarity over the attacks, several prominent Australian leaders visited India and ensured to introduce several measures in the immigration process and ‘zero-tolerance’ approach towards any such attacks in the near future. 

The Indian Overseas Ministry, on its part, made it compulsory for all education agents to get registered so as to reduce the chances of any students being cheated by fraudulent consultants.