PIL in Supreme court against charging workers stranded abroad

New Delhi, May 7

A PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Centre to use the Indian Community Welfare Fund (ICWF) to rescue poor workers stranded abroad due to the Covid lockdown.

Launched in 2009, the fund is meant to help Indian nationals living abroad in times of distress. The petitioner NGO, Pravasi Legal Cell, said fixing a fare for repatriation during these challenging times would further burden the migrant labourers who lost their jobs and were in a vulnerable condition in foreign land. “The government must also consider the situation of migrant workers who have already lost their jobs and are living in a miserable condition in the Gulf countries, and make use of the funds like the ICWF already available for bearing the cost of such needy Indian expatriates,” the NGO submitted.

Noting that majority of migrants were working in Gulf countries and were mostly “low skilled”, the petitioner said most of them had been shifted to quarantine camps that were notoriously crowded. — TNS