Parliamentary panel for a mechanism to ensure safety of Indians working abroad

A parliamentary panel today questioned top officials of the Ministry of External Affairs over the death of 39 Indian workers in Iraq, and asked them to come up with a new mechanism to ensure safety and security of Indians working abroad.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs headed by senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor was today briefed about the matter by Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale and other officials.

The agenda of the meeting was issues relating to migrant workers including appropriate legislative framework and skill development initiatives for prospective emigrants with particular emphasis on safety and security of Indian workers in conflict zones.

During the meeting, Tharoor asked the officials to frame a new law for protection and avoiding any harassment to Indians working abroad, a member who was present in the meeting said on condition of anonymity.

The panel members also questioned Gokhale over the death of 39 workers in Iraq, to which he replied that he had nothing to add to what External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had already stated.

On March 20, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told Parliament that 39 Indian workers, most of them from Punjab, were killed by the Islamic State in Iraq last year.

Of the 39 people killed, 27 were from Punjab, four from Himachal, two from West Bengal and the remaining were from Bihar.

All the 39 Indians were abducted by the ISIS terror outfit in Mosul in Iraq three years ago.

Swaraj had said it was not immediately known when the Indians were killed, their bodies were recovered from Badosh - a village in northwest of Mosul, and their identities established through DNA testing.

The bodies of 38 of 39 Indians landed were brought back in a special aircraft and handed over to their families today.