India Plans System to Track Citizens Abroad

By Binsal Abdul Kader, Staff Reporter (Gulf NEws) Last updated: December 16, 2008, 00:08
Abu Dhabi: The Government of India is planning a new system to track the number of Indians abroad since presently there are only estimates of its citizens, a senior Indian official told Gulf News.
The current system tracks those workers who go through immigration clearance but not the professionals (who do not require clearance), said K. Mohandas, Secretary in the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA), speaking to Gulf News by phone from New Delhi.
"Even the exact number of labourers is not available because we are unable to count the returnees (expatriates who return home after some time)". These are the factors which make the exact estimate impossible, he said.
Majority from Kerala
"The approximate number of Indians in the UAE is 1.5 million. Saudi Arabia also hosts approximately 1.5 million out of the total 5 million Indians in the Gulf countries (including workers and professionals).
The official said a majority of them are labourers and more than 50 per cent could be from the South Indian state of Kerala.
People from other South Indian States like Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are the other major groups.
Out of approximately 30 million Indians abroad, about 12 million are Indian citizens working abroad and about 18 million are People of Indian Origin (PIO - those who have citizenship of other countries but migrated from India a long time ago).
In 2007, about 800,000 Indian workers went abroad (who went through immigration clearance). The proposed system will provide the exact number of Indians living abroad, he said.
Amendment: Revision of fees
During his recent visit to the UAE, Mohandas told Gulf News that India will raise the existing ceiling of Rs3,000 (Dh 225) as transaction fee to be charged by recruitment agencies. "It is too low to cover the actual recruitment expense and makes it impossible to take action against unscrupulous agents," he said.
The Government of India will soon amend the immigration laws to raise the ceiling, said the official. He said although a new ceiling has not been finalised, the government is thinking of fixing a month's salary of a prospective candidate as the transaction fee.