With
the process to obtain labour permit going digital, the obligation to queue for
hours on end along with the subsequent hassles for the same has supposedly
ended. However, lack of awareness and some other problems have come as a
worrisome matter.
Failure
to effectively implement of the new system and short of coordination between
concerned banks, the Ministry of Labour and Employment (MoLE), Home Ministry
and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) have added to the matter.
Under
the digital system, a foreign employment aspirant is required to open a web
account and forward the password to the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE)
for registration and on the basis of his or her account details, the DoFE
issues labour permit accordingly. Following this process, the aspirant can fill
out the form to acquire a labour permit. The DoFE also requires bank details of
the amount to be deposited into the Workers' Welfare Fund under the Foreign
Employment Promotion Board (FEPB) and details of health check-up and
orientation programmes the aspirant has undergone for the same process.
However,
lack of awareness of the process has worsened the situation. For those opting
for aboard employment through a foreign
employment company, the concerned company fills up the form itself while those
making it to their foreign jobs individually or those returnees who are required
to obtain labour permit again are at the receiving end. For the latter
category, lack of knowledge of how to fill up the form online is a matter of an
urgent concern. Moreover, an intervention of middlepersons like operators of a
cyber cafe where aspirants make their way for the service is another problem to
resolve.
In
case of the forms filled up with the help of a cyber cafe operator, there is
always a chance of handling the matter wrongly. Moreover, for the service,
money between Rs 700 to Rs 2,000 each is charged.
Ram
Bharos Pandit aspiring to go to Saudi Arabia for a job complained that he had
to pay Rs 7,300 to a Tahachal-based cyber cafe. He said he was told that the
money he paid was meant to cover his insurance premium and the money to be deposited
into the Welfare Fund. When the receipt was reviewed it was found that Rs 5,300
has been paid for the insurance while Rs 1,000 had gone to the Welfare Fund.
The remaining 1,000 was charged by the cyber operator in the name of filling
out the form online.
Some
service seekers have also complained that negligence of a bank of not updating
the details of the amount to be deposited into the Welfare Fund even hours
after the deposition has also created problems. Intervention of middlepersons
has gone to the extent that they tend to collect and deposit all amount paid by
foreign employment aspirants meant for their insurance premium and the Welfare
Fund at once for their own convenience, thus delaying the process further.
The
online system supposed to deliver service in a quick and easy manner has just
followed the traditional process, which is why it is not working effectively,
claimed Rohan Gurung, General Secretary of the Foreign Association of Foreign
Employment Agencies (NAFEA). "We send out all required documents like the
details of the demand paper, salary and other facilities entitled to a foreign
worker through web. However, original documents are required by the DoFE even
thereafter, which turn out to be troublesome," he said.
The
need for the DoFE to require original documents of an aspirant even after
digitalising the system, it seems, means for creating the room for the DoFE
employees to bargain with the foreign employment entrepreneurs, Gurung
suspected.
Concerned
authorities have a different story to tell however. Secretary of the MoLE
Laxman Prasad Mainali claimed that a bunch of problems has been resolved after
the process went digital, bar some technical problems that turned up in the
first place. Although some employees of the concerned authority and
middlepersons tried to fail the system in the beginning, their attempts bit the
dust, he claimed.
Homework
has also been started through coordination between the MoLE, Home Ministry and
the MoFA to systematise the online system and issue labour permit to those
already working in foreign countries through the concerned Nepali Embassy there
itself, he said. "Preparations have started for the concerned Nepali
embassy in a foreign country, the Department of Consular Services, the Department
of Immigration, the DoFE and the FEPB to document details of foreign employment
aspirants through a common system."
To
fill out a form to obtain work permit one has to visit www.dofe.gove.np, the
website of the DoFE and click FEIMS Login there. The system was launched last
year with the investment of more than Rs 40 million from the Safer Migration
Project (SaMi) under the MoLE with financial aid from the Government of
Switzerland.
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