Telangana government urged to send volunteers to rescue Indians stuck in Kuwait

HYDERABAD: AS Kuwait government grants general amnesty to illegal immigrants between January 29 and February 22, activists and stakeholders have demanded the State government to send volunteers to help those stuck in the Gulf nation without valid visas.  Asserting that the government should immediately initiate relief measures as the amnesty period is lesser than 30 days, Emigrants Welfare Forum’s B L Surendranath  requested the government to provide free air tickets to help the expatriates.  

“The  government should also provide return and reintegration packages for them to start a life afresh.” Though the amnesty period gives the illegal or overstaying immigrants in a country the benefit of returning home without receiving permission from any authority and exempts them from penalty, experts like retired IFS officer BM Vinod Kumar say that during this period, many workers return home though they have no source of income here. They return only because their visas have expired. According to him, most others who return are those cheated by the travel agents or recruiters as they lack awareness on visa policies or norms. 

From migrants like Limbareddy who has no plans to leave and Laxminarayana who is a skilled worker awaiting transfer to another firm as he is being exploited by his current company, there are many workers from Nizamabad, Kamareddy, Nirmal and Karimnagar whose future hangs in balance as they lack awareness on their registration with the Embassy in Kuwait and have no alternative plan. 

A Kuwait-based social activist Murlidhar Reddy who has been fighting for the rights of these immigrants for years, said that so far there has been no support for the workers coming from Telangana. In the beginning of January, about 1,500 immigrants were abandoned by Kuwait-based company Kharafi National. The workers whose contract was terminated are currently in a labour camp in Kuwait.