By Amit Kumar and Shafeea Hudawi, TwoCircles.net
Mohammed Moosa, a young expatriate from Thalassery in Kannur district of Kerala, has now become a familiar face for the labour court officials in Kuwait City. The ‘absconding labourer’ is a usual visitor of the court, seeking help to get a release from Caesar’s Restaurant and Bakery, where he had worked till May 2015 as a cook.
The Mangalore-based company issued a complaint with Kuwait police, alleging Moosa to be an absconder. His crime? He joined another bakery as a part-time cook without informing his employers at Ceaser’s. While this may sound unprofessional on first impressions, Moosa believes this was just to make some extra money to send home. “My working hours were fixed from morning to 1 pm. I opted to go for a part time job in a bid to get a relief from the mounting debts following my sister’s wedding,” Moosa says.
When the company was informed about the part time job, Moosa was called by the manager and was forced to sign a paper.
“By signing that paper, I became an absconding labourer. Though I approached Indian embassy seeking help, the officials were reluctant to extend me an helping hand saying they did want to take on such influential companies,” he told
Twocircles.net.
Though he has been knocking the door of labour court and paying money for officials, his company continues to delay his release, making it nearly impossible for him to leave the country.
“If embassy takes a stringent action, the company would have to change its stand,” he says.
Moosa is not the only one who has been caught in this web of laws that make it impossible to leave the country; thousands of Indians in Kuwait remain stranded.
Moosa says that he meets several other Indian ‘absconding labourers’ whenever he goes to labour court.
In light of these issues, the Indo-Kuwait Friendship Society (IKFS) has decided to take adequate steps to inform the Indian embassy and the Indian government to ensure that at least some action is taken on this front. The Society has contacted Indian Embassy Labour department.
It also sent a request a to Sunil Jain, Ambassador of India to Kuwait for the arrangement of repatriation of undocumented Indian Workers (UIWs) in Kuwait in order to avail services for the mass repatriation of overstaying Indians under the Assisted Voluntary Repatriation Program (AVRP).
Speaking to Twocircles.net, Dr Ghalib Mashoor, President, IKFS, said, “We are asking for a mutual agreement to be signed between Indian Embassy and Ministry of Interior for an ‘Assisted Voluntary Repatriation Program’, (AVRP) so that Indian Embassy in Kuwait can address the rising number of stranded persons with expired resident permits and or so called ‘absconding persons’ in Kuwait.”
The issue of stranded labourers across the Gulf countries has been discussed extensively. In Kuwait, there are about 900,000 Indians living and as per reports, 30,000 people from different categories may be seeking for assisted repatriation, Mashoor said, “We requested the Indian Ambassador to ensure that the smooth repatriation of the people under the AVRP did not have to pass through the ‘Talha’ or deportation Centre.”
IKFS is instead offering the idea where such people can be transported from the embassy shelter area directly to the airport where they may be accompanied by the Embassy’s Labour attaché and/or with the designated volunteers (team) from different Indian associations who can also help Kuwait Immigration authorities at the airport check-in counter.
“Most of the undocumented workers were employed either as Household Service Workers (HSWs) of Individually owned Establishment Workers (IEWs) who left their employers after experiencing various forms of mistreatment such as physical, verbal or sexual abuse, non-payment of salaries, lack of food and overwork etc. It is important for the Indian government to address this issue as it concerns our own citizens,” Mashoor added.
Sayid Nizar, Vice President, IKFS and legal consultant pointed out that a visit by the Indian External or Overseas Minister from Union Government will help with reconciliation with the Interior Minister of Kuwait. Mashoor adds, “Recently, Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh went to Saudi Arabia to address a similar issue. The same can be repeated in Kuwait too,” he said. Mashoor added that the government of Philippines had already utilised such volunteer-assisted repatriation program, which benefited hundreds of their nationals.