Lok Sabha Question No. 2257 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-07-29
Subject: Registered Indian Workers
Ministry: EXTERNAL AFFAIRS
Asked by: Rodmal Nagar, Chandra Prakash Joshi, Manoj Kumar Tiwari

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.2257 TO BE ANSWERED ON 29.07.2022

## REGISTERED INDIAN WORKERS

## † 2257. SHRI RODMAL NAGAR : SHRI CHANDRA PRAKASH JOSHI :

## SHRI MANOJ TIWARI :

Will the Minister of EXTERNAL AFFAIRS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether any decrease has been registered in the number of Indian workers going to work/working in various countries of world;
- (b) if   so,   the   names of the countries in which the number of Indian workers has decreased during the last three years;
- (c) the names of the countries to which the number of Indian workers going for work has increased during the last three years; and
- (d) whether the Government has kept the record of the said workers or businessmen who have returned to the native country from the foreign countries and if so, the details thereof?

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

## [SHRI V. MURALEEDHARAN]

(a) to (d) While a large number of Indian workers particularly in the Gulf returned to India due to Covid-19, the economic recovery in that region and their increasing openness to travel from India has now seen a return by many of them. These movements are not accurately captured by immigration data.

As per data available on the e-Migrate portal, country-wise data of Emigration Clearance (EC) issued for   ECR countries during last three years is given below :

| Country   |   2020 |   2021 |   2022 (till 20 July) |
|-----------|--------|--------|-----------------------|
| BAHRAIN   |   4175 |   6382 |                  5949 |
| INDONESIA |      1 |      0 |                     1 |
| IRAQ      |    759 |    935 |                   348 |
| JORDAN    |    317 |   2386 |                  1783 |
| KUWAIT    |   8107 |  10158 |                 33631 |
| LEBANON   |     21 |     54 |                   122 |
| MALAYSIA  |   2435 |     36 |                  1089 |

| OMAN         |   7206 |   19452 |   17967 |
|--------------|--------|---------|---------|
| QATAR        |   8907 |   49579 |   13628 |
| SAUDI ARABIA |  44316 |   32845 |   99452 |
| SOUTH SUDAN  |      0 |       1 |       1 |
| THAILAND     |     10 |       1 |       0 |
| UAE          |  17891 |   10844 |   15235 |
| Grand Total  |  94145 |  132673 |  189206 |

Bureau of Immigration (BoI) maintains departure and arrival data of Indians. But there is no index for specifically capturing the category of Indians going abroad for employment/work purpose. Purpose of Indians for going abroad is usually captured manually based either on their verbal disclosure or the type of visa of the destination country produced by them at the time of according immigration clearance.

The number of Indians who verbally disclosed their purpose of visit either as employment/work or produced employment/work visa of the destination country while going abroad for the period from 01.01.2020 to 27.07.2022 is as below:

| Year   | 2020     | 2021     | 2022 (till 27 July)   |
|--------|----------|----------|-----------------------|
| Number | 7,15,770 | 8,33,845 | 13,02,240             |

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