By IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram: The state’s Non-Resident Keralites’ Affairs Department (NORKA) will set up advisory committees in the Middle East to protect the rights of migrant kerala workers, a minister said here Monday.
The panels will include representatives from the state government department’s field agency NORKA Roots, Malayalee organisations and eminent non-resident Indians, said Minister for Non-Resident Keralites Affairs K.C. Joseph.
“The committees will look into issues faced by migrant workers in the Middle East and will report and assist Indian embassies and missions in resolving them,” Joseph added.
The minister announced this during a regional consultation on the International Labour Organisation’s Convention 189 on decent work for domestic workers at the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) here.
A study by CDS, an autonomous research institute, recently estimated the number of Kerala emigrants living abroad in 2011 to be 2.28 million, up from 2.19 million in 2008, 1.84 million in 2003 and 1.36 million in 1998.
Countries in the Middle East are preferred destinations for a large number of migrant workers from the state.