Sunday, December 1, 2013
7,000 stranded as govt fails to issue permits
KATHMANDU, DEC 02 -
Thousands of migrant workers have been left stranded in the Capital for weeks, while many others were forced to forfeit their visa and air tickets after the government body concerned failed to issue them work approvals in time. The government has been blaming a dearth of human resource for the situation.
The Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) has been returning hundreds of migrant workers empty-handed everyday, citing inability to handle the “huge workload” with the limited human resources at its disposal.
Migrant workers and recruiting agencies say the department is now taking several weeks to issue a work approval, while it used to take a couple of days in the past. Around 2,000 people visit the DoFE every day, seeking administrative service related with overseas jobs.
The Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies (NAFEA) said various factors, including the “inadequate and incompetent staffers” at the department, change in the leadership of the department, deployment of senior officials in election duty and rise in the number of aspiring workers have aggravated the situation. “At least 7,000 people are currently in the waiting list for the work approval. Thousands of files have piled up in the pre-work approval and final work approval divisions of the department,” said NAFEA Secretary Kamal Tamang.
Migrant workers going abroad with their individual efforts have been mostly affected. While migrants coming from outside the Kathmandu valley are compelled to spend their money on food and accommodation in the Capital, some were more unfortunate as they had to part with the free air tickets given by their prospective employers. “I returned from the office twice, despite queuing up the whole day long. Let’s see what happens today,” said Romanchak Gyawali from Makwanpur, who was expecting his work approval on Sunday. He said he had to borrow money from friends in Kathmandu after he ran out of it due to the ‘unexpectedly’ long stay. Many aspirants coming from far off places in the country find it hard even to return home.
Tamang said several workers and recruiting agencies are facing problems more serious than Gyawali’s.
“A total of 150 workers missed their flight on Friday after the department, the labour desk and the airport immigration delayed their work. Several recruiting companies have complained of visa expiry, while many workers are returning empty handed from the DoFE every day,” said Tamang. A handful of enraged youths even ransacked the DoFE building, demanding prompt services last Thursday.
The workers, according to recruiting agencies, will have to spend an additional Rs 100,000 for visa and air tickets to go to the Gulf and Malaysia. DoFE officials said they are doing their best to bring the ‘crisis’ under control. They said a number of reasons, mainly the deployment of several of its officials for election duty, are behind the crisis.
DoFE spokesperson Divash Acharya said the rise in the number of aspiring overseas workers in the aftermath of the November 19 election and the Dashain and Tihar festivals is only ‘natural.’
“We have started giving four hours of extra service every day to meet the demand, while the office will remain open even on Saturdays. We are working hard to ensure that nobody returns home empty handed,” said Acharya. Some say that the department has not been able to work properly after the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) arrested around two dozens of its officials under corruption charges. The Ministry of Labour and Employment
has, however, deputed around three dozen new staffers to fill the vacuum created by the arrests.
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