New Delhi: Nearly four lakh Indians got emigration clearance in 2023 to work abroad, the government informed the Lok Sabha Monday. Labour mobility is something the Indian government has been working for, and the nation currently has labour mobility pacts with six countries—Israel, Taiwan, Malaysia, Japan, Portugal and Mauritius.
According to Jayant Chaudhary, Union Minister of State (independent charge) for skill development and entrepreneurship, the number of unskilled and semi-skilled Indian workers going abroad increased from 3,73,425 in 2022 to 3,98,317 in 2023. The data was collected by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) through the e-Migrate portal.
“As per information provided by the Ministry of External Affairs, data is maintained only in respect of Indian workers holding Emigration Check Required (ECR) passports, proceeding for overseas employment through e-Migrate portal to any of the ECR category countries,” Chaudhary stated in the House in response to a question from two MPs.
Eighteen foreign countries—Afghanistan, Bahrain, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen—require Indians migrating there for employment to have emigration clearance from the MEA. These countries do not have strict laws regulating the entry and employment of foreign nationals.
The MEA, however, notes that checks for Libya and Yemen are currently suspended due to the prevailing situation in those countries.
“The government has been proactively furthering mobility for the Indian workforce through diverse MoUs/agreements such as migration and mobility partnerships, labour mobility and labour welfare agreements, skill development and vocational education and training with destination countries, which establish a robust framework for legal migration,” Chaudhary said in the Lok Sabha.
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Mobility agreements key feature of Indian diplomacy
Mobility agreements have been a key feature of Indian diplomatic efforts in recent years.
The Indian government has MoUs on migration and mobility with France, the UK, Germany, Australia, Austria, Italy and Denmark.
Most recently, India and Germany signed a joint declaration on labour and mobility during German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s visit to India last month. During a bilateral meeting last week between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Brazil, mobility and migration was brought up by the former.
India has been looking for greater concessions from the UK for easier visa norms for its citizens as part of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the two countries. This has been one of the sticking points in the final agreement, which has been under negotiation since 2022 and was paused earlier this year due to general elections in both countries.
Modi and Starmer agreed to relaunch negotiations on the FTA last week.
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar also discussed labour mobility with his counterpart from the UK, David Lammy, during a bilateral meeting in Italy Monday on the sidelines of the outreach session of the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting.
“Discussed deepening cooperation in technology, green energy, trade, mobility, as well as ongoing developments in Indo-Pacific and West Asia,” said Jaishankar in a post on X.
West Asia tops migration for Indian labour
In February this year, the then Minister of State for External Affairs, V. Muraleedharan, had informed the Lok Sabha that nearly 3.2 lakh Indians were granted emigration clearance to travel to three countries, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait, for employment.
In 2023, 2,00,713 Indians were granted emigration clearance to work in Saudi Arabia, while 71,687 Indians travelling to the UAE got emigration clearance. A further 48,212 such clearances were granted to Indians migrating to Kuwait. Together, these three countries made up the bulk of unskilled and semi-skilled Indian labour abroad in 2023.
Qatar, Oman and Malaysia accounted for another 66,000 such workers, while Bahrain, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon were some of the other countries for which Indians sought emigration clearance to migrate.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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