Holland expels Indian I.T. employees

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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Dutch authorities ask Indian IT employees to leave
BOMBAY (AFP) Mar 28, 2003
Dutch authorities have asked several employees of a top Indian software company to leave the country after detaining them for visa irregularities, company officials said Friday. A statement from IT firm I-flex, based in the western city of Bombay, said the employees had been released and given a week to leave Holland. The statement did not say how many employees were being expelled, but industry sources put the number at 12 or 13. “Based on questions asked to the employees, it is our understanding that the investigation relates to visa matters,” it said. The chief executive officer of the company’s Dutch subsidiary, Senthil Kumar, has been detained in Britain on the directions of Dutch authorities, the statement added. I-flex said it had approached officials of the Indian foreign and information technology ministries to secure the release of Kumar, who was the only one remaining in detention. The company, one of India’s top software firms, has clients such as IBM, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems. India’s premier IT software body, the National Association of Software and Service Companies expressed concern about the incident. “As per our information, the infringement, if any, of the Netherlands requirement is purely a technicality due to ambiguity in interpretation about the type of visa required for the kind of work being done by the I-Flex professionals,” said NASSCOM president Kiran Karnik. This is the third incident in a year involving Indian software employees being detained overseas over visa matters or software contracts. Earlier this month Malaysian authorities rounded up 270 Indian software professionals over alleged visa irregularities, while last year top officials of the Polaris Software company were detained in Indonesia. The incidents sparked outrage in India and the foreign ministry took up the cases.

Dutch action on IT experts unwarranted: India
NEW DELHI (AFP) Mar 28, 2003
India Friday said the arrest of several of its IT experts in the Netherlands and in London was unwarranted and smacked of “economic protectionism”. Foreign ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said the issue had been taken up with the Dutch and British embassies in New Delhi and a protest had been lodged with the Dutch government. A statement from IT firm I-flex, based in the western city of Bombay, said 12 or 13 of its employees had been asked to leave the Netherlands by Dutch authorities after being detained for alleged visa irregularities. A statement issued by the Dutch embassy in New Delhi reiterated that they did not have the required work permits. They have been given a week to leave Holland. In London, the chief executive officer of the company’s Dutch subsidiary, Senthil Kumar, was arrested “at the behest of the Dutch authorities”, Sarna said. “Mr Senthil Kumar has a perfectly valid UK visa. His arrest was not intimated to the Indian embassy and he has not been provided any consular access,” he said. “What we feel is that such action although painted as visa fraud actually smacks of economic protectionism… neo-tariff barriers. I-flex is a highly professional and reputed firm. It is not a fly-by-night company,” he said. This is the third such case involving Indian IT professionals in a year. Earlier this month Malaysian authorities rounded up 270 Indian software professionals over alleged visa irregularities, while last year top officials of the Polaris Software company were detained in Indonesia. The incidents sparked outrage in India and the foreign ministry took up the cases after which the Malaysian acting prime minister personally apologised for the incident. “We wouldn’t like to draw any linkages but these actions come in the way of WTO (and) sound like neo-protectionism,” Sarna said. India’s premier IT software body, the National Association of Software and Service Companies expressed concern about the incident. “As per our information, the infringement, if any, of the Netherlands requirement is purely a technicality due to ambiguity in interpretation about the type of visa required for the kind of work being done by the I-Flex professionals,” said NASSCOM president Kiran Karnik.
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India to provide ‘escort service’ for software professionals
BANGALORE, India (AFP) Apr 01, 2003**
The Indian government said Tuesday it will provide an “escort service” to its software professionals to guide them on visa regulations after a recent spate of arrests abroad. “One must be very scrupulous with the visas,” Minister for Communications and Information Technology Arun Shourie told reporters here. “The IT ministry along with the National Association of Software and Service Companies (India’s premier IT lobby) will jointly provide an escort service to every software professional who is going out to such countries as Germany and the Netherlands,” Shourie said. “Our ministry will work with the industry on what the visa requirements are in different countries and tell them to obey scrupulously,” he said. “India’s IT is a house set on a hill. So many people would want to get rid of us.” A week ago authorities in the Netherlands and in London arrested several employees of Bombay-based information technology firm, I-flex on alleged visa irregularities. India said the arrests were unwarranted and smacked of “economic protectionism.” Earlier in March Malaysian authorities arrested 270 Indian software engineers over alleged visa irregularities, while last year top officials of Polaris Software India Ltd. were detained in Indonesia. The incidents sparked outrage in India and the foreign ministry took up the cases. The Malaysian acting prime minister personally apologised for the incident. “There are visa requirements and everything should be in perfect order. In Malaysia the police action was triggered by false information,” Shourie said. Shourie said India’s software industry was best in the world but cheap manpower being exported outside for software development and research was hurting the employment of other nations. "The work that we do impacts on the jobs elsewhere just as imports from other countries will cut on jobs here. So, if Chinese batteries come (to India) we start shouting (to) put an embargo, put anti-dumping duty. “When we want to take advantage of free trade, we have to be for free trade in all services and commodities. We have to be strong and competitive so that everybody will listen to us,” Shourie said. Shourie said the Iraq war could provide opportunities for Indian software companies. "I think we should see opportunities in these difficult times. If there is a recession worldwide, there will be lesser demand for these services. But the more recessionary the conditions in the West, more western firms will have to go for cost-cutting measures. “That is where they will give work to countries like India,” he said.

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Indian techies face global backlash as jobs disappear
BANGALORE, India (AFP) Apr 02, 2003**
Recent incidents involving the arrests of Indian IT professionals abroad are the first signs of a backlash as jobs become scarcer due to a global recession, industry representatives say. Instead of being welcomed with open arms, the once highly prized professionals are being questioned and subjected to minute checks of their travel and work documents. "I feel this is the start of a backlash. The bottom line is we are taking away jobs from others," said Vinay Deshpande, chairman of Encore Software Limited, which makes cheap handheld computers or "Simputers." "These are warning signs, though I do not think it has reached an endemic stage," Deshpande told AFP. A week ago, authorities in the Netherlands arrested around 12 employees of Bombay-based information technology firm, I-flex, and asked them to leave the country within a week for alleged visa irregularities. In London, the chief executive officer of the company's Dutch subsidiary, Senthil Kumar, was arrested at the behest of the Dutch authorities. "The backlash that we are witnessing has its roots in the social problems being faced by many countries, including unemployment," said S. Ramadorai, chief executive officer of Tata Consultancy Services. "Increasingly we are witnessing an economic slowdown with job losses taking place around the world and certain social issues with an emotive content have emerged," he said. The arrest of the I-flex employees was the third such case involving Indian IT professionals in a year. In March, Malaysian authorities arrested 270 Indian software engineers for alleged visa irregularities, while last year top officials of Polaris Software India Limited were detained in Indonesia. The incidents sparked outrage in India and the foreign ministry took up the cases with individual governments, even demanding an apology from Malaysia and warning of a diplomatic fallout. This week the government said it was going to provide an "escort service" to its software professionals to guide them on visa regulations. "Our ministry will work with the industry on what the visa requirements are in different countries and tell them to obey scrupulously," Minister for Communications and Information Technology Arun Shourie said Tuesday. Shourie said India's software industry was best in the world but cheap manpower being exported outside for software development and research was hurting the employment of other nations. "It does impact jobs elsewhere. The free movement of IT professionals depend on overall bargaining strengths of India. We have to be economically strong and competitive," Shourie said. India has the largest pool of English-speaking manpower after the United States. Its army of software professionals have capitalised on the software boom in India, whose global software exports are slated to grow 29 percent to 470 billion rupees (9.7 billion dollars) in the financial year which ended March Many have gone abroad, willing to work for one-eighth the salaries of their counterparts in United States and Europe. But many global IT firms have sacked thousands of workers to cope with a cut in technology spending. And now many countries, including the United States and Britain, are planning laws to clamp down on government outsourcing work to other nations. Vivek Paul, vice chairman and president of Wipro Technologies, the global information technology arm of Wipro Ltd, India's third largest software exporter, said the move was "inevitable." "We went through a lot of pain when there was manufacturing globalisation. Now there is services globalisation. We have seen this movie before and we know how it ends," Paul told AFP. But he said the lay-offs in the global technology industry were a blip. "The reality is that whichever numbers you look at, it continues to indicate a rising shortfall between supply and demand for technology workers in all the developed markets," he said. Encore chief Deshpande echoed Paul's views and said there was a massive shortage of skilled manpower in the industry. "Actually, they have invited us. India has a large pool of manpower. It is filling a void and one must not view them as takers away of jobs," he said.

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also there is local resenment about job loses

High-Tech Industry Fires Americans, Hires Indians NewsMax.com Wires and NewsMax.com
Thursday, March 20, 2003
Computer giant Sun Microsystems Inc. fired thousands of American high-tech workers to replace them with younger, lower-paid engineers from India, a lawsuit charges. The legal action will step up the conflict between technology companies and American engineers over the H-1B visa program, which lets companies “temporarily” bring foreign workers into the United States … whether they are needed or not.
Class-action status is being sought for the lawsuit, filed Monday by Walter Kruz, 52, in California Superior Court in Santa Clara. He worked at Sun from May 2000 until late 2001, when Sun was laying off about 2,500 of its workers in the United States.
The lawsuit says Sun had a bias against Americans and in favor of Indian hires. Sun’s Indian-born co-founder, Vinod Khosla, admitted this year on CBS’s “60 Minutes” that people from India “are favored over almost anybody else.”
“According to the lawsuit, hardly any of those laid off by Sun were people of Indian descent. Instead, the company created a performance evaluation program that required managers to classify a certain percentage of workers as underperformers, the suit alleges. At the same time, workers who had been at the company for a short time were exempted from this evaluation program, ensuring that few H-1B visa holders would be subject to it. As a result, most of those found to be underperfomers were older, American-born workers,” the Boston Globe reported Tuesday.
“At the same time, the suit alleges that Sun was applying for permission to bring in about 2,400 foreign workers, mostly from India, to fill technical jobs.”
The law says H-1B workers must receive the same pay as U.S. employees, but Kruz’s attorney says this requirement is easily evaded.

India’s Tech Industry Faces Global Backlash
A few months ago, when unemployed mothers in New Jersey dialed a toll-free number to find out the status of their benefit checks, a call center thousands of miles away based in Bombay, India, answered their calls.
When New Jersey state senator Shirley Turner came to know about it, she saw the irony of it. An angry Turner drafted a bill that barred state contracts from going overseas, and the state senate passed the bill unanimously.
She wanted to ensure that government funds were used to employ people living in the United States, rather than workers in India.
Although the bill was later blocked by the state assembly, it sparked similar moves by four other states: Maryland, Wisconsin, Connecticut and Missouri.
Anti-India IT sentiment isn’t restricted to the United States. From Germany, France and Britain to Indonesia and Malaysia, the Indian IT industry, particularly its software professionals, is facing the ire of workers, policy-makers and powerful unions.
Whether it’s a case of enacting new laws or plugging holes in old laws, or imposing visa restrictions on Indian IT staff, or even harassment of Indian IT staff in some countries, forces are aiming to curtail Indian IT companies from expanding abroad.
“Our success has led to some resistance … a kind of a pushback,” said Kiran Karnik, president of the country’s powerful software lobby, National Association of Software and Services Companies.
There are reasons for the economic and social backlash: IT and other high-tech jobs are migrating from developed economies to less-developed economies such as India, Russia and China. More than a quarter of the Fortune 500 companies have shifted, or are shifting, back office work to India.
3.3 Million U.S. Jobs Shipped to India
In a recent report, the research and consulting firm Forrester Research said that 3.3 million U.S. jobs in the services sector and $136 billion in wages are expected to move to countries like India, Russia, China and the Philippines by 2015. The IT industry is expected to lead the trend.
The report said that like the shift in manufacturing jobs in the last half of the 20th century, the huge cost advantage of these low-wage countries would drive the movement of services jobs.
That’s bad news for developed countries, which are dealing with sluggish economies and high unemployment.
“Our formal request to members of Congress at this time is two-fold,” said Marcus Courtney president of Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, a group of high-tech workers formed to advocate improved benefits and workplace rights. The group is an affiliate of the union Communications Workers of America.
“One, what is their position on the issue of high-technology jobs moving offshore, and would they support a Congressional investigation. Second is in terms of specific legislative proposals, though we have not come up with one, but it is something we are working on.”
But the backlash is bad news for the Indian IT sector, which is still hoping to reach its $80 billion revenue target by 2008 (up from about $12 billion) by selling software and services abroad.
How is India facing the global backlash?
The Ministry of External Affairs hasn’t done much yet, except in extreme cases such as a recent incident in Indonesia. There, two Indian software executives were held hostage by the Indonesian army in December.
So Nasscom has risen to the challenge. The IndUS Entrepreneurs, which evangelizes for Indian entrepreneurship and services globally, is also pushing the same agenda.
“The ball has already been set rolling,” said Kiran Karnik of Nasscom, "and we are interacting with key decision and policy makers in the United States about the advantages of outsourcing to India that will accrue to the sagging U.S. economy.
"Nasscom will share information on how U.S. industries, especially banks, insurance and other financial institutions have benefited due to increased outsourcing of back office operations to India, over the years.
“U.S. banking and allied sectors are estimated to have saved $8 billion over the last four years by outsourcing to India.” Nasscom is also working with Information Technology Association of America and U.S. businesses to draw up strategies to tackle the outsourcing issue.
The body has retained a public relations firm in the United States, Hill and Knowlton, to reach federal and state representatives.
But mostly, India’s IT industry is banking on the fact that it still offers good value in software services, especially amid a global recession. The industry hopes that the United States and Europe face the cold economic facts sooner rather than later.

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/3/20/114513.shtml

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Indians will cancel their Hockey and Cricket Team tour to Holland.

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:rotfl:

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Killer! :hehe:

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Well done Holland, Other countries should follow

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Quite disconcerting.
My older brother owns a Software development company in Bangalore and frequently brings over his staff to UK on these very visas.
I also have some tennants that are contract workers in the IT industry who have come to the UK from India.

RizwanFareed.....this is not a good sign.
If they can do this to Indian workers, do you think they will hestitate for even one second to kick-out PAKISTANI contract workers?

Look at the bigger picture, people. Its NOT good.