Malayalis caught in the widening West Asian gyre

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
02 Mar 2011

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The insurgency looming large over the West Asian countries is casting a shadow over the overseas job prospects of Indians. Since Keralites constitute a major chunk of the NRI population, the impact on Kerala will be worse in case of an exodus from more Gulf countries.

The Centre has imposed a temporary ban on emigration to Libya. With the internal crisis spreading to Bahrain and Oman, chances of the Centre imposing restrictions on emigrations to these countries could not be ruled out. Owing to the unrest in Bahrain, issuing of visas by the Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) in Bahrain is also learnt to have been affected.

An exodus of Keralites from these countries will badly affect the state’s economy as deposits from Non- Resident Keralites constitute about 25 pc of the total deposits received by the banks in the state. The total NRE deposit in Kerala last year was Rs 36,886 crore.

‘’Recently, we received a direction from the Centre not to issue emigration clearance to Libya,’’ said P K Sasikumar, Assistant Protector of Emigrants in Thiruvananthapuram.

‘’So far, there are no directions regarding restrictions on emigration clearance to other countries.

But we are advising the applicants for emigration clearance to Oman and Bahrain on the present situation in those countries,’’ he said.

Recruitment sector sources said if the insurgency spreads to more countries, the outcome would be disastrous for countries like India.

The state had witnessed a mass exodus following the recent global recession and the Gulf war of the 1990s. As a result, many Malayalis were rendered jobless.

According to rough estimates, over 20 lakh Malayalis are working in West Asian countries. The Malayali population in Oman comes to around four lakh. Bahrain has over one lakh Malayalis.

“The situation in Bahrain is not alarming. In Oman, it seems that the agitation is turning aggressive,” said Recruiting Agents Association of Kerala president B Vivek.