Dubai:
The Indian embassy in Riyadh has received around 15,000 passports of Indian workers in Saudi Arabia, facing cases of running away from their local sponsors and other violations, from that country's foreign ministry.
Most of the passports were handed over to the Saudi authorities by the Saudi sponsors, local media reported on Monday.
"Most passports, surrendered by sponsors to the Saudi authorities, belong to stranded Indian workers, including those languishing in jails on huroob (runaway) charges or on charges of violation of Saudi residency laws," Sibi George, deputy chief of mission at the Indian embassy, was quoted as saying.
Indian workers are thronging the embassy and the Indian consulate in large numbers in the wake of the new labour policy that the Gulf Nation has implemented.
The Nitaqat or Saudisation policy makes it mandatory for all Saudi companies to reserve 10 percent of jobs for Saudi nationals.
"The move will help to repatriate all those workers currently facing huroob charges, provided they have no civil or criminal case against them," George said.
The embassy has uploaded a list of the passports on its website.
There are around two million expatriate Indians in Saudi Arabia.