Package to rehabilitate jobless overseas Indian workers

The Centre will soon announce a comprehensive package to rehabilitate overseas Indian workers who have returned to the country following job losses due to the economic downturn.

Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi said the government was in the final stage of establishing a 'Return and Resettlement Fund' that will provide a "reasonable level of financial security" to the overseas returnees.

"My ministry is working towards establishing a fund that will provide financial security to those workers who have lost their jobs and returned home," Ravi said inaugurating the two-day annual conference of the Heads of Missions here.

A senior official of the ministry said the Indian workers in Gulf countries have been the worst hit by the economic downturn and the scheme will initially be limited to the workers returning from these countries.

Although the government did not have an exact figure of the number of Indians who have come back home from the Gulf countries, officials said the number of returnees may be in the range of four to five lakh in the last one year.

Asking the Heads of Missions to take strong action to root out irregular migration, Ravi said the ministry has constituted a high-level inter-ministerial core group to develop effective measures to combat it.