The Hindu : National : India to sign labour pacts with more nations

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Sunday, Aug 10, 2008
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India to sign labour pacts with more nations

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: India has clinched labour agreements with Malaysia, Oman and Bahrain for the protection and welfare of the Indian emigrants in these countries. The agreements, negotiated by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (OIA), will be signed soon.

The country has already signed such agreements with Jordan, Qatar, the UAE and Kuwait.

The agreements aim at securing Indian emigrants against exploitation and abuse in the host countries. The Ministry also proposed to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with important labour receiving countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

These agreements have significance in the wake of reports of maltreatment of Indian workers in the Gulf and other countries. The agreements are also designed to forge bilateral partnerships to expand overseas employment market for Indian workers. There are about 4 to 5 million migrant workers from India in the Gulf countries. Of these, 1.2 million are in the UAE, 0.5 million in Kuwait, about 0.4 million in Oman, about 0.2 million in Qatar and 0.2 million in Bahrain.

In the direction of welfare of professional and highly skilled workers, the government has finalised social security agreements with Germany, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. The Ministry is negotiating similar agreements with France, Sweden, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Norway and Cyprus.

It has already signed a bilateral social security agreement with Belgium. The agreement protects the interests of expatriate workers.

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