The India jobs crisis driving workers to Israel

On a frigid morning last week, hundreds of men, wrapped up in woollens and blankets, queued up inside a sprawling university campus in India's northern state of Haryana.

The men, carrying backpacks and lunch bags, were queueing up for practical exams for construction jobs - plastering workers, steel fixers, tile setters - in Israel.

For those like Ranjeet Kumar - a university educated, qualified teacher who has only ever managed to find work casually as a painter, steel fixer, labourer, automobile workshop technician, and a surveyor for a non-profit - it is a chance too good to pass up.

The 31-year-old has never managed to earn more than 700 rupees per day, despite having two degrees and having cleared a government "trade test" to work as a "diesel mechanic". In contrast, the jobs in Israel are paying around 137,000 rupees ($1,648; £1,296) a month, along with accommodation and medical benefits.

Perhaps unsurprisingly then, Mr Kumar, who got a passport last year, is eager to secure a job as a steel fixer in Israel to support his seven-member family.

"There are no secure jobs here. Prices are going up. I am not financially stable even after graduating nine years ago," he explained.

According to reports quoting officials, Israel plans to bring in 70,000 workers from China and India and other countries to boost its construction sector, which has been struggling since the 7 October Hamas attack. A labour shortage had arisen after Israel barred some 80,000 Palestinian workers following the attack, reports add.

Some 10,000 workers from India will reportedly be hired. Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are accepting job applications, with the Maharshi Dayanand University in Haryana's Rohtak city hosting tests for a few thousand applicants