Labourers from across Telangana lined up to go to Israel, a country which is reportedly reeling under labour shortage after its conflict with Hamas escalated earlier this year.
At the end of a four-day recruitment drive that concluded in Hyderabad on Friday, a total of 2,209 labourers registered to be recruited for skilled construction work in the West Asian country. After a few rounds of tests, during which they had to display their work prowess, 905 people were selected to be added to Israel’s foreign labour force.The recruitment drive was conducted by the state government and facilitated by the National Skill Development Corporation International (NSDCI).
The Telangana recruitment drive was the third to be held in the country this year, under an agreement between India and Israel governments. As per the agreement, Israel recruits labourers from India after screening their skills and flies them across the borders to be employed in their country.
Earlier this year, similar recruitment drives were held in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. “In those two drives over 9,000 labourers had turned up,” an NSDCI official told The Indian Express.
Such recruitment drives are expected to be held in Maharashtra, Bihar and Rajasthan too, the NSDCI official said.
At least one batch of 60 immigrant labourers have so far reportedly left the country for Israel. As the conflict between Israel and Iran amplified in March, killing, among others, a Kerala man working on an Israeli farm, the Indian government had temporarily stopped allowing its citizens to fly to the war-torn country. Air India too had suspended its flight operations to Israel till mid-May.
The labourers recruited in Telangana are carpenters and those who do ceramic tiling, plastering and iron bending. The biggest draw for the Indians leaving for the war-torn region is the high remuneration provided by Israel’s construction industry. As per the recruitment team, each labourer will earn between Rs 1.2 lakh and Rs. 1.38 lakh per month – salaries which are manifold higher than the market rates for such skilled labourers in India.
Israel has been seeking foreign labour to meet its domestic construction needs. Till the beginning of this year, around 80,000 Palestinians were employed in Israel’s construction industry. However, as the conflict with the Arab nations imploded in January, Israel cancelled the work permits of the Palestinians. It is this labour shortage that Indians are expected to bridge.
Speaking to The Indian Express, an NSDCI officer who was in the know of the recruitment drive said, “On the first day of the drive we ran the camp only for half a day as the number of people turning in was less. From the second day onwards, hundreds came in to be recruited.” In a way, recruitment through a government-led drive is better than “paying illegal recruiters and taking an arduous route to Israel without proper safeguards,” the officer said.
It is, however, not known when the recruited labourers will be able to fly to Israel. “This takes time and we need to ensure all safeguards are in place,” an official said.
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