Few
Goans return from Kuwait
Sandesh Prabhudesai
28 March 2003
Hardly 100 Goans have arrived from Kuwait in last one week
after the US-Iraq broke out, against not less than around
30,000 working there, indicating no panic though the whole
tourist state is deeply worried.
On the contrary, quite a few locals have left Goa for Kuwait,
to join duties, completing their holiday as scheduled.
Goa is connected directly to Kuwait by an Air India flight,
that flies twice a week.
Though the state government here have no proper records available
of the number of Goans working abroad, rough figures state
that around one lakh Goans could be working in the whole Gulf
region. Almost 30 per cent of them work in Kuwait alone.
The figures however comprises nearly 10 per cent of Goan
population. If the expatriates are forced to leave the Gulf
region in case the war situation worsens, it is bound to bring
tremendous socio-economic pressure on the tiny state.
"We have not sounded any red alert to create unnecessary
panic, but the state machinery is prepared with a contingency
plan", states a senior official of the NRI Facilitation
Centre formed by the state government.
According to the centre officials, chief minister Manohar
Parrikar has even shown willingness to fly down the Gulf-based
Goans at the state cost, if the situation demands. Plans to
provide self-employment opportunities with additional benefits
have also been drawn out, in case of emergency.
"The situation is calm. There is no immediate danger
to our community at large", states Alex Wilson Coelho,
Kuwait-based president of the Goan Welfare Society, an umbrella
organisation for the whole Gulf region.
He has sent a message not to panic and the Indian embassy
has already made elaborate arrangements, should a situation
for evacuation arises. According to him, only contract-based
workers are sent back, till the situation comes back to normal.
A co-ordination committee meeting of the representatives
of various state-level Indians' associations was also held
four days ago. It was attended by Indian ambassador Swashpawan
Singh, India's civil aviation secretary K Roy Paul and regional
directors and managers of Air India and Indian Airlines.
In addition, state the local officials, the state government
is also directly in touch with Shripad Naik, minister of state
for civil aviation, the MP from Goa.
According to George Bosco, DySP (Immigration), the number
of expatriates has increased slightly after the war, may be
from 40 to 70 per flight. Most of them are contract workers
who are sent back, he adds.
Though no non-working women and children have started returning,
the NRI centre has already requested the government to make
school admissions available for the children here, as the
new academic year would begin from June.
Watching television news repeatedly day and night, the whole
state however is sitting here with their fingers crossed,
with a hope that the war would end without the neighbouring
countries getting targeted.
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