Govt slams brakes on plans to send workers to Israel

Gurgaon: Construction workers scheduled to depart from India next Friday received messages from the Centre to cancel their plans to go to Israel because of escalating tension in the country.

Workers who are already in Israel, meanwhile, claimed that they are safe and do not feel the tensions coming their way for now. According to them, even locals there do not feel any threat due to the war at this time.

Mandeep Dangi, a resident of Jhajjar who was shortlisted as a construction worker for Israel during the recruitment drive held in Jan, said, “We received a message from the govt of India and NSDC to cancel our departure this Friday. The first batch that was sent to Israel only had a few workers from Haryana.”

The Centre issued an advisory on Friday urging citizens not to travel to Iran or Israel, highlighting the potential risks it poses to Indian nationals — particularly those working or residing in these countries.

The advisory was issued against the backdrop of a growing number of reports about an Iranian attack on Israel or Israeli interests in retaliation for the Israeli air strike on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria that killed seven people, including three generals.

The recruitment process had sped up in India after Israel banned Palestinian workers following the Oct 7 attacks last year. Workers’ groups across the country had raised safety and ethical concerns, but no clarity was obtained on whether or not the workers will be posted in conflict zones.

The first group of 64 workers was sent to Israel on April 2, following a massive recruitment drive in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, held over the course of a few months. They were a part of an expected 10,000-strong workforce set to be sent to Israel in the next few weeks. For this, there were meant to be Air India flights as well as chartered flights every day, officials of the National Skill Development Council said.

Israel’s construction sector had urged the Indian govt to allow companies to hire up to 1,00,000 workers from India to replace the roughly 90,000 Palestinians who formed about 25% of the sector’s workforce. The Centre agreed to provide 42,000 staffers to Israel, and Haryana and Uttar Pradesh became the first two states to respond to the request.

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