External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday said the 10,000 Indian workers stranded in Saudi Arabia will be evacuated soon, reported PTI. The Union minister said Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh will leave for the Gulf country at the earliest to oversee the evacuation process.
"Not one worker of ours will go hungry. This is my assurance to the country through Parliament... We will bring all of them back to India," Swaraj said, adding that the National Democratic Alliance government was coordinating with the foreign and labour offices in Saudi Arabia regarding the plan.
The minister informed the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha members that the West Asian country's laws do not have the provision for exit visas without no objection certificates from the employers. The people who had recruited the Indian workers in question have shut their factories and left the country. The Centre is in talks with its Saudi counterpart to get the visas so that the stranded workers can leave the country, she said.
She also informed the Assembly that the Indian Consulate has distributed ration for 10 days in all five relief camps set up to help the stranded people. "I am personally monitoring the situation," Swaraj said. On Twitter, she had said on Sunday that her ministry has asked the Indian embassy in Riyadh to provide free ration to the unemployed Indian workers.
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