Saudi Gazette JEDDAH – Like a well-oiled machine, the Indian diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia are functioning round the clock in lending a helping hand to its 2.6 million strong community with a foolproof mechanism that is envisioned to enable it to overcome comfortably the distressing coronavirus pandemic situation. In a series of virtual meetings held on Tuesday and Wednesday, Indian Ambassador Dr. Ausaf Sayeed dealt in detail with the entire gamut of the measures taken by the Indian Embassy in Riyadh and Consulate General in Jeddah to reach out to the community and address its vital concerns. "We carry forward the message with the entire community that the Indian missions are there 24*7 to render all sorts of help and succor any member of the community. There is no lag in decision making, and everything that is needed to be addressed will be done in a time-bound manner," he said while interacting with around 50 Indian journalists from all over the Kingdom through a Zoom video conference on Wednesday. The virtual interaction came at a time when Saudi authorities warned of many of the labor camps as hotspots of coronavirus and the Ministry of Education allotted as many as 3,445 educational buildings for quarantine purpose in the event of labor camp evacuations. The majority of Indians, the largest expatriate community in the Kingdom, are unskilled workers, who are tipped as among the most affected segment of the community in the 24-hour lockdown still in force in most parts of the country. The expenses for provision of food and other basic needs for those in distress will be met from the Indian Community Welfare Fund (ICWF), the ambassador reiterated while replying to demands came from various quarters. "When the entire world is grappling with this disastrous phase in the history of humanity, the situation is very much better in Saudi Arabia compared to other countries," Dr. Sayeed said while thanking the Saudi leadership for its great support to the members of the expatriate community in their hour of distress, especially the provision of free treatment and large scale visa-related exemptions and relaxations. "The announcement of free treatment for the coronavirus patients, both for Saudi nationals and expatriates irrespective of their residency status, is highly commendable. We express full solidarity with the efforts being made by Saudi Arabia to mitigate the economic impact of this pandemic," he said. The envoy noted that an overwhelming majority of 70-80 percent of those infected with coronavirus are expatriates. There are 186 Indians among the more than 6,000 confirmed cases, and there were two Indians among the 83 dead. "There are two Indians — Safwan Chemmad in Riyadh and Shabnas Panoor in Madinah from the southern state of Kerala — among the deceased. Condition of most of the infected Indian cases is stable," he said while quoting the data shared by the Ministry of Health. Dr. Sayeed said that India had evacuated 3,000 Umrah pilgrims between March 12 and 19. "However, some of the pilgrims, 232 in number, stayed back in the Kingdom and they will be sent back once the international flight service resumes," he said. The ambassador explained the elaborate arrangements and vast measures being taken to tackle the situation after 24-hour lockdown came into force in most parts of the Kingdom. "Last week, all the ambassadors from the six Gulf States had a video conference with senior officials of India's Ministry of External Affairs and government of India's COVID Cell to assess and evaluate the situation in the region. "During a video conference with 40 prominent community members from all parts of the Kingdom on Tuesday, we have come across with all the major problems facing the community and the talks mainly figured on provision of food and medical help for those in distress as well as the quarantine facilities and Indian school situation," he said. "Community welfare sections at the Embassy and the Consulate are always in touch with the members of the community," the ambassador said while urging the community to remain calm and fully cooperate with all the measures taken by the Saudi government to stem the spread of coronavirus. "We are working very closely with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Human Resources and taking whatever measures needed to ensure the health and wellbeing of Indians," he said while underscoring the need to carry out intensive awareness campaign among members of the community. During the interaction with media persons and community leaders, Dr. Sayeed explained the all-out efforts to serve its nationals. 24*7 foolproof mechanism Apart from regular helplines, the Indian missions have set up a dedicated multilingual 24X7 COVID helpline, which has received so far around 1,000 calls. The missions disseminated awareness messages and advisory in different languages through various outlets of social media. There are also separate WhatsApp groups of prominent community members and social workers as well as that of media persons and selected doctors from all over the Kingdom. Press releases about the day-to-day developments will be issued. The Saudi protocol and advisory on coronavirus will be prepared in various languages before posting them on website and distributing them among the nationals. The calls seeking help from suspected cases will instantly be handed to the medical group so as to handle it on personal basis to have immediate access to medical aid and treatment. The list of hospitals where corona treatment is available across the Kingdom will be made available in different languages with the helpline in addition to distributing it among the community members. Labor camps, supply of food and medicine The overall condition of blue-collar workers at labor camps is satisfactory. Regular and direct contacts and communications are there with Indian workers in major camps as well as with their employers and senior executives of over 100 major companies to reassure their health, living and sanitary conditions, and proper provision of food and other basic needs. Constant contacts are also there with Ministry of Health and Ministry of Human Resources, alerting them about the major camps of Indian workers to hold their own inspections and monitor the situation on a regular basis. A mechanism has been worked out for the delivery of food for those in need. Contacts have already made with major food supply chains like LuLu and restaurants in major cities for the delivery of food. Food packets will be distributed by community members through utilizing the missions' facilities. Whenever a distress call from workers is received, the missions directly ask the employers to address them as they have the mandate and permission to deliver food and basic needs as individual level operation is found extremely difficult. Bangladesh embassy started food distribution in labor camps from Wednesday and some other embassies started earlier. But large-scale operation of food supply can be undertaken only through the knowledge of the Saudi authorities. Efforts of some embassies in this respect ended up in trouble in the absence of such a permission. Provision of food and medical help for workers living in some remote regions is also in pipeline. Each day the missions are getting feedback from community members and exchanging best practices among embassies of different countries, which have large workforce, like Philippines and Bangladesh. A consultative mechanism is being worked out within and between the embassies and their nationals. The Embassy and Consulate are in discussions with Indian medical clinics to utilize their ambulances in case of emergencies. They are also exploring the prospect of utilizing ambulances available in Jeddah consulate, which are normally used for Haj purposes, with the permission of Saudi authorities. Schools for quarantine The missions are exploring the prospect of using community schools for quarantining blue-collar workers. The missions are in touch with some hotel groups like Oyo Group, which is offering a series of hotels in various cities across the Kingdom. Also, there are some Indian philanthropists and businessmen who offered help. Simultaneous efforts are on with some other individuals who have some apartments and all these will be put in place with the approval of the Saudi authorities. Volunteer work Indian missions are keen on further strengthening the process of the existing volunteer work mechanism Kingdomwide. There should be a system where the missions can tell Saudi authorities that these are the volunteers who are ready with all assistance at their call. Many of the Saudi agencies, especially police, in various provinces have recognized the role of Indian volunteers, who have so far not met with any difficulties in going ahead with their altruist work. It would have been extremely difficult for the embassy and consulate to discharge their duties without the support of volunteers. The Embassy and Consulate are issuing letters for volunteers and community workers. Only a couple of embassy employees can get passes from Saudi authorities. There are also plans to use ambulance for the movement of volunteers and volunteering doctors. Repatriation There is no plan for repatriation of Indian nationals taking into account the 24-hour lockdown being in force in both Saudi Arabia and India. The Indian missions are receiving many messages and mails from people, especially those on visit visa and their dependents, as well as from those who need medical attention in India and pregnant women. In the very moment of a decision of lifting the travel ban, priority in repatriation will be given to those who have registered with us with such emergency situations and mainly for those having health problems. The missions will start their registration only after the formal announcement about lifting of travel ban. At present there are no indications of flight resumption. There is no plan to bring medical teams from India. Medical team deployment will be carried out only upon the request of the host country. If any request is made by Saudi Arabia, India will consider it. The missions have not yet received any requests for repatriation of mortal remains during the lockdown. In the event of receiving any request, the missions will sensitize the case with the Indian authorities and deal them case-by-case. Community schools A virtual meeting of Higher Board of Indian schools will be held on Saturday to discuss and decide on a number of vital issues. These include using community schools or portion of them for quarantining Indian workers. Strict instructions have been given to all schools that all students shall be allowed to attend virtual classes, irrespective of any defaulting of fees. Issues such as fee payment will be considered only after reopening of schools. The Higher Board is putting into place a new system of online education, which incurs additional financial burden. The demand to review the fee structure, especially waiving of some fees like laboratory and library fees, during the lockdown period will also be top on agenda of the meeting. There are 10 community schools with 45,000 students in the Kingdom and all these are working on a no profit and no loss basis. All schools are given the target of earning five percent surplus income than the budget but many could not achieve it. Hence, the choices are hard as the payment of salary and rent shall be made without retrenching the staff. Despite these constraints, the school authorities will be asked to do whatever possible, especially considering the situation of unaffordable parents, who are a small minority. The decision of the meeting will be informed to parents immediately after the meeting. Deputy Chief of Mission Dr. Pradeep Singh Rajpurohit attended the virtual session, which was managed by Second Secretary (Political & Information) at the Embassy Asim Anwar, and Consul Commerce & PIC Hamna Mariyam Khan from Jeddah Consulate.
