Nitaqat: Kerala in despair

JEDDAH: Thousands of foreign workers in Saudi Arabia including Malayalis have started returning to their homelands even as the Arab country made the Saudization programme, called Nitaqat, stricter from Friday onwards.

Indians constitute the largest chunk of expatriates in Saudi. Among Indians, Keralites are the largest group. According to a recent study by the Centre for Development Studies, the stock of Keralites in Saudi in 2011 was 574,739.

The labour ministry has classified about 250,000 small and medium enterprises that have failed to comply with the Nitaqat provision of employing at least one Saudi in their firms in the ‘red’ category. The deadline for complying with the direction ended on March 27.

According to the Nitaqat provisions, the ministry will not renew the work permits of the employees in the ‘red’ category. This means they will have to leave the country. The Saudi cabinet has already passed a law to arrest and deport such workers.

The Nitaqat will affect Keralites the most as a substantial number of them are working in small and medium enterprises. Many of them are also running such firms in the Kingdom. Majority of Keralites in Saudi Arabia are from Malappuram.

Saudi is the second largest employer of Keralites, the first being the United Arab Emirates. Therefore, any development in the labour front in Saudi is bound to have ripples in the southern Indian state.