As part of its rehabilitation package for Nitaqat-hit Keralites returning from Saudi Arabia, the Kerala Government has announced incentives for employers ready to hire them.

“If employers and firms hiring at least 25 per cent of their fresh recruitments from among the Saudi returnees, they will get a lot of government benefits,” R.S. Kannan, additional secretary in the Non-Resident Keralites Affairs Department, told Business Line . These would include interest subsidy on loans and easier clearance for their projects.

The incentives for employers are among a host of steps announced by the government as part of its package aimed to help the Saudi returnees. Kannan said the government had a two-prong approach: helping them to “reintegrate in the domestic market” and to “facilitate re-emigration.”

Since most of the returnees had acquired some skills and experience while in Saudi Arabia, the government would try to find them jobs in other Gulf countries. If necessary, they would be given training to upgrade their skills to gel into the Gulf market, he said.

The rehabilitation package’s focus would be on helping the returnees find self-employment. For instance, Kannan said, if ten drivers decide to form a car rental, the government would help them find the required capital at subsidised rates. All government departments were instructed to give priority to the Nitaqat returnees in their employment-support programmes and welfare schemes.

According to a recent household census carried out on behalf of Norka, the number of Keralites in Saudi Arabia was 4.5 lakh.

basheer.kpm@thehindu.co.in

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