Migrants labourers have been among the worst hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Most Indian migrants in the GCC countries are at the bottom of the pyramid in their host countries. Infected in large numbers, and with limited access to healthcare, that is a humanitarian crisis that is developing.
S. Irudaya Rajan is Professor at the Centre of Development Studies (CDS) Thiruvananthapuram and Member of the Kerala Govt. Expert Committee on COVID-19. Ginu Zacharaia Oommen is a Member of the Kerala Public Service Commission, formerly Visiting Professor at the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’homme (FMSH), Paris. Both are experts on migration and they jointly edited Asianization of Migrant Workers in the Gulf Countries (Springer) recently.
Ginu Zacharaia Oommen (left) and S. Irudaya Rajan.
An interview.
We know about the plight of migrant labourers in India. How are Indian migrants in GCC countries coping with the pandemic?
Their plight is no less desperate. Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan wrote to the PM on the issue. In the wake of the COVID-19 spread, the situation of Indian immigrants is very precarious. Nurses, small businessmen, labourers have been infected in significant numbers and there is no care for them. In Kuwait, Indian localities such as Jleeb Al Shuwaikh and Mahboula have been quarantined; currently 530