Dubai fallout hits South Asian migrant workers hard

NEW DELHI - There was no need to panic, insisted the minister. The Indian Government was closely monitoring the fallout from the crisis in Dubai but was not expecting a flood of migrant workers returning home.

The problems would likely soon blow over.

But many workers would take issue with the comments of Vayalar Ravi, the Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs.

Having returned from Dubai to India for the Muslim holiday of Eid, dozens of them have received text messages telling them their jobs no longer exist and that they should not return to the Gulf.

As news from Dubai continued to send stocks and spirits tumbling - yesterday it was revealed that Dubai World, the heavily indebted property arm that last week asked for extra time to pay back more than US$60 billion, was not guaranteed by the emirate's Government - the shockwaves were also resonating through the communities responsible for providing Dubai and other cities in the Gulf with much of its low-cost labour.

There are millions of poor, impoverished labourers from South Asia in the Gulf region.

Drawn from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh and often paying hundreds of dollars to a middle man to secure a job, these workers find conditions are often atrocious and that they have virtually no rights. Many have complained of being prevented from leaving.

The upside of the hardship for these workers is the amount of money that gets sent home in remittances.

Figures suggest that in 2007, Indians living in the Gulf sent a total of US$27 billion to their families.

For some states, the money sent home is a big slice of the total economy.

In Kerala such remittances make up around 22 per cent of the state's income.

Finance Minister Thomas Isaac said he believed that even if the Dubai crisis did not rock India in its entirety it would affect Kerala "very much".

But Ravi said authorities believed that while the crisis would have international implications, it would not lead to large job losses for migrant workers.

The Government, however, planned to announce a comprehensive package to rehabilitate those Indian workers who do return from the Gulf.

- INDEPENDENT