Rajahmundry: Gulf migrants data is readied

Rajahmundry: District and revenue authorities are developing a database on the number of people migrating from Narasapuram and Palacole areas in West Godavari to the Gulf states for jobs to support their families back home.

Large numbers of youths migrate to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states every year from the district. They generally work there for a few years, earn some money and return home to set up small businesses.  

Young, unmarried and married men go there to work as drivers, fitters, technicians, or labourers in construction industry while married women aged between 35 and 45 find work as housemaids.

There, however, is no proper channel so far to scrutinise as to whether they are going with valid papers along with the visa they get from employers there. Most of them depend on local agents or their acquaintances and relatives in the Gulf to get a visa. The agents are often unlicensed and unscrupulous ones, and this poses many problems for these people while working abroad.

The officials here come to know of the migration of an individual to the Gulf only when a family comes up  at a later stage — with a complaint about their kith or kin facing trouble from his or her employer in the Gulf. Maltreatment is common. The complaints range from ill-treatment, sexual exploitation in case of women, and not paying proper wages even as they are made to slog through day and night. Only a few of the migrants are happy with their employers, while some get adjusted with the difficult situation, as there might be no alternative source of livelihood back home.

The district authorities keep receiving complaints on a regular basis, like ill-treatment, payment of meagre wages and forcing workers to stay in dungeons.

At times, even if a worker dies either due to ill-health, physical harm or for other reasons, the information is not passed on to the family here from the side of the employer.

Narasapuram sub-collector A.S. Dinesh Kumar said, “We are going to develop the database of all the migrants to the Gulf countries so that we can come to their rescue if and when they find trouble and seek our help. At present, we don’t have such information. We appeal to the local family members of the migrants to share information with us about their kith and kin.”