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Origin of Emigration
Act 1983.
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In the early twentieth
century there was an outflow of skilled and unskilled
workers from India for employment purposes. In the beginning
the Indian migrating for better avenues of employment
got good response and were well accepted but with passage
of time persons going abroad for employment increased
resulting in unfair treatment. There are exploitation
of Indian workers abroad. To mitigate the problems and
to regulate the emigration of skilled and unskilled
workers, the Emigration Act 1922 (7 of 1923) was enacted
by the then British Government in India. It was enacted
to meet the requirements prevailing during that time.
During the oil boom in GCC countries in early seventies,
the flow of skilled and unskilled workers seeking employment
abroad had a tremendous jump and the subject of emigration
had become a matter of increasing concern both for Government
and the public in general. The Government initiated
a system of registration of recruiting agents laying
down certain minimum terms and conditions of service
on which emigration of different categories of workers
could to be allowed. The Supreme Court of India in a
case in March, 1979 laid down four basis conditions
according to which emigration of Indian workers was
to be regulated until the passage of a new legislation.
The new legislation could not be enacted by July, 1979
and in August, 1979 the Supreme Court reiterated the
need for the new legislation. To consolidate and amend
the law relating to emigration of citizens of India,
the Emigration Bill was introduced in the Parliament.
STATEMENT OF OBJECTS
AND REASONS
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The object and purpose
of the Emigration Act is to consolidate and amend the
law relating to emigration of citizens of India. It
defines the ambit of emigration, recruiting agent and
Protector of Emigrants and declares that emigration
officers are public servants within the meaning of section
21 of the Indian Penal Code. The provision of the Emigration
Act prescribes the procedures for registration of recruiting
agents. Under the provision of the Act, any person aggrieved
by an order of the registering authority rejecting his
application for registration or an order of the Competent
Authority rejecting his application for permit or an
order of the Protector of Emigrants rejecting his application
for emigration clearance, may prefer an appeal against
such order to Central Government. Offences committed
under this Act are cognizable notwithstanding anything
contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. The
provisions of the Act shall not apply to the recruitment
or emigration of any person who is not citizen of India
and the control of recruiting in India for the service
of foreign States to which the Foreign Recruiting Act
1874 applies.
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India has a vast
reservoir of skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled manpower.
A larger number of Indians can emigrate to other countries
for work if they are given proper counseling and reorientation
keeping in view the needs of the labour market and if
their functional capability is enhanced to compete with
the workers from other labour exporting countries. This
is possible only if there is an agency, which can take
such promotional role. At present under the provisions
of the Act, the Government has neither any role to study
the needs and demand of the overseas labour market nor
does it provide any training or career counseling to
the workers going overseas. It is therefore, proposed
to constitute a Central Manpower Export Promotion Council
under this Act.
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There have been may
cases in which emigrants had obtained emigration clearances
from the offices of Protector of Emigrants, but on reaching
the alien lands, they faced many problems, such as change
of work agreement to their disadvantage by the foreign
employers, non-payment or delayed payment of salaries,
poor working and living conditions, getting stranded
because of the foreign employers unwillingness to receive
them on arrival, non-availability of jobs after arrival
in the foreign country, non-payment of compensation
in the case of injuries caused by accident in the course
of or arising out of employment resulting in partial
or total disablement, delays in the transportation of
dead bodies of the workers to India by the foreign employers
etc.
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A few labour exporting
countries in the South Asia and South East Asia region
have set-up either Welfare Funds or Welfare Boards to
provide some financial assistance proposed to constitute
the Indian Overseas Workers; Welfare Fund for meeting
such contingencies, by making payments to the Embassies
or High Commissions for arranging return tickets for
the workers who get stranded in the foreign countries,
or for transportation of dead bodies of the workers
and to grant assistances to the workers who become partially
or permanently disabled or for similar other purposes.
However, there is no proposal to provide assistance
to illegal migrants.
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With a view to achieving
the above objectives, the Ministry is proposing to amend
the Emigration Act, 1983. As a result of the proposed
amendments, it is expected that more workers will be
deployed abroad for employment on contractual basis
resulting in direct increase in remittance of foreign
exchange and providing timely financial assistance to
the emigrants in distress in alien lands.
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The Bill seeks to achieve the aforesaid
objects.
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