Centre to keep tab on workers in Gulf; to roll-out delayed e-migrate project
NEW DELHI: The Union government is all set to roll-out the inordinately delayed e-migrate project that is expected to be particularly useful in the event of Iraq-like situations where Indian nationals find themselves either stranded or in captivity.
The project an electronic platform providing data and information has had its share of hiccups over the years leading to a prolonged delay in its finalisation. Sources conceded that the project faced a “lot of coordination problems and nothing was moving.”
However, the differences between the ministries of overseas Indian affairs, external affairs and home affairs now seems to have been ironed out and the ambitious project is almost ready for launch.
The project will be operational in about two months from now and will cover all Indian passport holders under ECR (Emigration Check Required) category .
Those that come under the ECR category are blue collar workers and largely work in the Gulf countries.
Under the Emigration Act, 1983, Indian passport holders who come under the ECR category are required to obtain emigration clearance from the office of the Protector of Emigrants (POE) under the ministry of overseas Indian affairs for going to 18 countries.
Among them are the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Malaysia, Libya, Jordan, Yemen, Sudan, Brunei, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Syria, Lebanon, Thailand and Iraq.
It is hoped that once in place, the e-migrate project will help the government track lakhs of Indian workers employed abroad. Under e-migrate the Centre will maintain data on the workers so that it knows in whi-ch country they are empl-oyed, who is their employer, their recruiting agent among other information.
Additionally, it is hoped that e-migrate will also help the Union government check malpractices and irregular migration as well as corruption. The project envisages, among other thi-ngs, interlinking with recruiting agents, employers, immigration counters and Indian missions abroad.
