Lok Sabha Question No. 583 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-12-09
Subject: Indian Workers in Gulf Countries
Ministry: EXTERNAL AFFAIRS
Asked by: Uttam Kumar Nalamada Reddy

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 583 TO BE ANSWERED ON 09.12.2022

## INDIAN WORKERS IN GULF COUNTRIES

583. SHRI UTTAM KUMAR REDDY NALANDA:

Will the Minister of EXTERNAL AFFAIRS be please to state:

(a) total number of Indian workers working in Gulf countries;

(b) whether the Government has reduced the Minimum Referral Wages applicable to Indian workers in the Gulf;

(c) whether   organisations   representing   Indian   workers   in   the   Gulf   have   requested   the Government to rollback this reduction;

(d) if so, whether the Government intends to accede to their request and if not, the reasons therefor,

(e) whether the Government has estimated the impact in terms of loss of earnings for each worker;

- (f) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS

## (SHRI V. MURALEEDHARAN)

(a) to (f) As per information available with our Missions in Gulf countries, estimated number of Indians(including workers) is tabulated below:

| Name of country   |   Estimated number of Indians (including workers) |
|-------------------|---------------------------------------------------|
| Bahrain           |                                            308662 |
| Kuwait            |                                            924687 |
| Oman              |                                            653500 |
| Qatar             |                                            844499 |

| Saudi Arabia         |   2465464 |
|----------------------|-----------|
| United Arab Emirates |   3554274 |
| Total                |   8751086 |

The Ministry maintains record of ECR passport category workers who migrate to the Gulf countries   after   obtaining   Emigration   Clearance   through   the   eMigrate   Portal.  As   per   data   from eMigrate portal, country wise number of Emigration Clearances issued to Indian ECR category passport holders for 6 Gulf countries during last four years is given below:

| Name of country      |   2019 |   2020 |   2021 |   2022 (till 31 October) |   Total |
|----------------------|--------|--------|--------|--------------------------|---------|
| Bahrain              |   9997 |   4175 |   6382 |                     9706 |   30260 |
| Kuwait               |  45712 |   8107 |  10158 |                    65689 |  129666 |
| Oman                 |  28392 |   7206 |  19452 |                    29845 |   84895 |
| Qatar                |  31810 |   8907 |  49579 |                    28556 |  118852 |
| Saudi Arabia         | 161103 |  44316 |  32845 |                   151072 |  389336 |
| United Arab Emirates |  76112 |  17891 |  10844 |                    30164 |  135011 |
| Total                | 353126 |  90602 | 129260 |                   315032 |  888020 |

The Minimum Referral Wages (MRW) for employment in 6 Gulf countries is the same now as it was in 2019-20. For a brief period of 10 months, the MRW were adjusted downwards, due to the Covid situation, to protect our employment in the Gulf.  As the labour market stabilized, the earlier MRW was made applicable once again.

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