HYDERABAD, India - More than 100 illegal Indian migrant workers are constructing the biggest and most expensive US embassy in the world in strife-torn Baghdad.
The US plans to open its "Vatican-sized" diplomatic enclave in Baghdad by September this year, and workers from the central Indian province of Andhra Pradesh are now racing against time to meet the deadline.
The embassy will cover 42 hectares on the banks of the Tigris River. Workers from Philippines and Bangladesh are also involved in the embassy's construction.
A total of 40,000 workers from several districts - Karimnagar, Nizamabad and Adilabad - are employed by American and Iraqi forces in Iraq, it is estimated.
The majority of them are illegal migrants who entered Iraq through other Gulf countries without proper visas. They are mainly engaged on work in military bunkers, supplying food to soldiers and other menial jobs.
A hundred workers have been drafted to work on the embassy, which is estimated to cost $592 million. The state government cell does not have any record of Andhra workers in Iraq since 90 per cent of those employed there are illegal. They are mainly picked up from Kuwait and United Arab Emirates.
Poor and unskilled workers from backward districts visit the Gulf countries on a visitor or tourist visa. Local recruiting agents then hand them over to US military officials for employment.
The government has imposed restrictions on unskilled workers leaving for Iraq, and this is the reason why they are adopting this roundabout route. "We are always facing the risk of attacks from insurgents but the money is good," said Tirupati Reddy, a migrant worker. "We can never earn so much at home."
Since the UAE, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries are tightening their immigration rules, unskilled labourers from backward districts now prefer strife-torn Iraq for jobs.
Since they are shipped to the bunkers by US military aircraft, visa and immigration rules are relaxed and the workers are free to stay as long as they wish.
"But life is hard in the bunkers, and that is why I returned," said K. Mahesh, a migrant worker.. "Many from my village are still working there."
Ramana Reddy from Malial mandal in Karimnagar returned after working at the US embassy site for some time.
"It is hard work since they are constructing a 21-building complex," he said. "Also, we never know what will happen the next moment in Baghdad. But we risk everything for big pay."
(AKI)
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