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1,300 Indian workers in Iraq: official

Some 1,300 Indians are currently working in Iraq and only 390 of them are there legally, a Kerala government official said Tuesday.

"I do not know how many of them are Keralites," said Satish Nampoothiripad, CEO of Roots Norka, the state government's agency for non-resident Keralites.

His comments came following a newspaper report on two brothers from Kerala who had escaped from a US military camp in Iraq after being forced to slave for them for nine months.

The brothers, identified only as Hameed and Shajahan, said the Americans had been "buying" people from poor countries to labour for them.

The brothers said they fell into the hands of the US Army after being tricked by travel agents who had promised them jobs in Kuwait.

Nampoothiripad said he had left for New Delhi to ascertain the facts after news reports appeared April 19 that hundreds of Keralites were stranded in Iraq.

"From the ministry of external affairs and Protector of Emigrants in Delhi, I learnt there were 1,300 Indians in Iraq. Of them, just 390 had got an official visa to work in Iraq and all the rest were illegal workers from India. I could not get the number of Keralites stranded," said Nampoothiripad.

"I got in touch with the Indian missions in Jordan, Kuwait, Syria, Iraq and Turkey and found out that many of them reached Iraq without proper documents.

"They were originally recruited for countries like Jordan and Kuwait and their employers handed these workers to employers in Iraq," Nampoothiripad added.

The state government pleaded helplessness on the issue.

"We are helpless; all that we are doing is to ensure people seeking employment in the Middle East are not duped by agents," said Minister for NRKs M.M. Hassan.

"When we ask these people to be careful, they ask us to give them employment here," he added.

From: http://news.newkerala.com/kerala-news/?action=fullnews&id=15115