The Madras High Court has asked the government of India to provide details of how many people had been helped by Indian embassies in the wake of issues such as exploitation, illegal detention or seizure of travel documents.
The Madurai bench of Madras High Court has asked the government of India to submit information on how overseas Indians are being helped in the wake of various emergencies.
Bench Justice N Kirubakaran and Justice S S Sundar took note of incidents involving Indians getting stranded, exploited, cheated, jailed or even killed in various countries.
The bench asked the government about the steps taken to ensure the safety and well-being of Indians abroad.
The bench was hearing a petition of Mr R Sahayaraj Vinoth of Kerala regarding four Indian engineers who have been missing since September 10. The engineers, from Tamil Nadu went missing after their ship met with an accident.
The judges have asked the government to find out the fate of these Indians.
Over 30 million Indians are living in other countries. Many face difficulties and approach local embassies or missions for help. A number of Indians die abroad and their family members bring their bodies back to India for the last rites.
The bench wanted to know from the External Affairs ministry as how many Indians died overseas in the last 10 years and whether their bodies were brought back.
According to Indian news agency PTI, the court asked, "If the government has taken effective steps to set up an Indian maritime casualty investigation cell, if amendments have been made in rules to ensure the life of seafarers is made more secure and safe and in case of loss of life, their kith and kin are paid adequate compensation.”
Bringing the bodies of their loved ones back from overseas has been a concern for many Indians as it is a costly affair.
A parliamentary paper published in 2017 said 7,694 bodies of Indians were stranded in foreign countries in 2015.
Recently, a UAE-based NRI moved to the Supreme Court of India seeking direction to the government for arranging free transportation of bodies of Indian nationals who die abroad.
The plea filed by Mr Ashraf Thamarassery also seeks “all Indian citizens, who are leaving the country for any reason, must have mandatorily secured for Pravasi Bharatiya Bima Yojana scheme at the very inception while they are leaving the country,” the Business Standard reported.
