Dubai World debt crisis may soon turn into a nightmare for the Indian workers, top policymakers fear.
“It may work against the workers who are on short-term contracts. They may find renewal tough,” K Mohandas, secretary of Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, told Express.
However, the global recession has not forced a permanent return of Indians from the Middle East in huge numbers as feared, he added.
Union ministers Pranab Mukherjee and Vayalar Ravi too sounded calm.
Annual remittances to India from UAE is about 2 billion US dollars, out of the $52 billion sent by Indian expats from across the world.
Two-thirds of the six million people living in Dubai are Indians, more than 60 per cent of them Malayalis, much to the worry of Kerala’s Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac.
“One main fear,” he notes, “is that the credit to reality sector in Dubai would be frozen for some time. It could seriously affect the construction sector, thereby our workers.” There is also concern about the fate of Kochi’s Smart City project as the Dubai-based real estate giant TECOM is already alleged to be in a bad shape.
Most of the Indians employed in the UAE, according to recruitment agencies, are in the real estate sector, financial services and retail.
“The Middle East meltdown,” says E Balaji of Chennai-based headhunting firm Ma Foi Management Consultants, “will lead to at least 25 per cent contraction in the job market. It can have a ripple effect.”
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