Tens of thousands of Indian workers are being recruited for jobs in Israel, a country where a deadly war is going on. On 16th January, a recruitment drive was initiated in Rohtak. Earlier, in December 2023, both Haryana and Uttar Pradesh had issued notifications calling for interested candidates to arrive for interviews and job screenings.
The Haryana government’s advertisements specifically called for candidates to fill 10,000 positions in Israel — of carpenters, iron benders, ceramic tile fixers, and masons, among others.
This recruitment drive is going on at a time when Israel is engaged in a genocidal war against the Palestinian people. In this war, which has lasted over 100 days, at least 25,000 Palestinian people have already been killed, the majority of them being women and children.
Israel has been pursuing a long term policy of replacing Palestinian workers working in factories, construction sites, and hospitals with people from India and other countries. As part of this policy, on 9th May, 2023, the government of Israel had signed an agreement with the government of India that would allow 42,000 Indian workers to work in Israel, of which 34000 were expected to be working in the construction and nursing sectors.
The implementation of this agreement was temporarily stalled by the war which broke out in October. In November 2023, India’s Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship reportedly entered into a three-year agreement to supply Indian construction and nursing workers to be employed in Israel on temporary contracts. The advertisements put out by the state governments must be seen in the light of this agreement.
The workers who are being recruited do not have any information about their contracts, the location of their potential employment or the Indian authority that is organising this recruitment. No official government authority is taking responsibility for sending our workers to a war-torn country. On the contrary, various government agencies have formally distanced themselves from the process. The Chief Executive Officer of the National Skill Development Council (NSDC) is reported to have said, “NSDC is not a recruiting company. Some state governments have invited applications for jobs in Israel and our mandate is to provide skill training for workers.” The NSDC is charging Rs.10,000 per worker for this skill training.
The Union Labour Ministry has not explained its position on this issue. The Haryana Labour Minister denied all responsibility for the recruitment, saying that it is the central Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) that monitors such migration of workers. The MEA declined to reply to a detailed list of questions sent by a newspaper asking what kind of assurances were being requested from the Israeli labour agency. No statement to clarify who would be responsible for these workers has been put out by the MEA.
The extreme insecurity of livelihood facing Indian workers is being used to lure them into highly risky and precarious employment abroad. It is a matter of serious concern that neither of the authorities – MEA at the centre or the agencies of state governments – are willing to acknowledge their responsibility and be accountable for the safety of our workers. Several workers’ unions have denounced the callousness of the authorities and demanded that this recruitment be stopped.
It is unpardonable that the Indian state has agreed to send workers to Israel at a time when Israel is committing unimaginable crimes against the fraternal Palestinian people. The Indian state must immediately stop this.