28 Lakh Indians Went To Foreign Countries For Work In Last 30 Months! Only 4.16 Lakh Opted ECR Nations

Over 28 lakh Indians travelled abroad in search of employment  from January 2020 to July 2022 according to the government data analysed by CNN-News18 shows. 

Abroad Employment Affected During Pandemic 

Besides this, the said data also reveals that around 4.16 lakh Indians have left India for private jobs in the Emigration Check Required (ECR) countries for the same time period.

Since there’s no specific index for capturing the category for Indians going abroad for employment or work purposes, the purpose of travel “is usually captured manually based either on their verbal disclosure or the type of visa of the destination country produced by them at the time of according immigration clearance,” said the ministry of external affairs in a written statement in the Lok Sabha.

Further added that Indians who verbally disclosed their purpose of visit either as employment/work or produced employment/work visa of the destination country while going abroad between January 1, 2020, and July 27, 2022, were 28.51 lakh.

Consistent Increase In Employment 

Interestingly, these numbers indicate that there has been a consistent increase in the tally. 

Around 7.15 lakh Indians went abroad for work during 2020.

This number has increased significantly to 8.33 lakh in 2021.

When it comes to 2022, by the end of July, 13.02 lakh Indians had left the country for work.

While talking on the subject, the ministry said it maintains the data in respect of Indian workers holding ECR passports who emigrate through legal channels (e-Migrate portal) to any of the ECR countries for overseas employment. 

Indian Migrant Workers Returned

Around 1.31 lakh out of the total 4.16 lakh Indians, nearly 32 percent of the travellers were from Uttar Pradesh alone.

It was followed by Bihar with 69,518 travellers.

So far, the emigration clearance is required only for 17 countries including Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Indonesia, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, Libya, Lebanon, Malaysia, Oman, Qatar, Sudan, Syria, Thailand, UAE, and Yemen, as per the ministry.

Reportedly, the rise in numbers was observed after many Indian workers, particularly in the Gulf, returned to India due to the Covid-19 crisis.

From June 2020 and December 2021, over 4.23 lakh Indian migrant workers returned from 14 ECR countries according to the records available in the eMigrate system. 

This figure includes 1.18 lakh from Saudi Arabia and 1.52 lakh from the United Arab Emirates.