The High Court heard the PIL filed by the migrant’s rights activist Bheem Reddy Mandha.
Emigrants Welfare Forum president Bheem Reddy Mandha has filed public interest litigation (PIL) in the Telangana High Court seeking the repeal of two circulars issued in September last year by the Indian government reducing the minimum referral wages (MRWs) by 30 to 50 percent for Gulf workers.
ALSO READ: RTI filed on human trafficking to Gulf
The bench of Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy took up the case on Thursday (25.03.2021). Advocate B. Rachna Reddy argued the case on behalf of the petitioner. The Foreign Secretary to the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, the Protector of Emigrants (POE), Hyderabad, and the Chief Secretary, Government of Telangana were named as respondents. The next hearing in the case was adjourned to July 29 after the summer vacation and another similar case would be heard together. Speaking on the occasion, Bheem Reddy Mandha said that the reduced minimum referral wages (MRWs) would have a serious impact on the income of 88 lakh Indian workers living in the Gulf countries in the future.
He said the Gulf workers associations and diaspora organizations had been fighting for the past three months and recently a delegation from the Gulf JAC had gone to Delhi and submitted petitions to MPs and Union ministers. He said the central government should think of this matter from a humanitarian perspective.
