The story keeps changing. Earlier it was corruption charges which led to my removal and now it is that I was not loyal to the 10-point direction of the Prime Minister. 

 

On April 8, the Post reported that human and women trafficking is thriving in the foreign employment sector. Referring to the Central Intelligence Bureau officers it said that foreign employment department and immigration department officials have a role in promoting trafficking. On April 10, another report claimed that fraudulent manpower agencies have been exploiting workers, and turning this sector filthy. In both the reports, the blame for wrongs in the foreign employment sector is placed on the manpower companies and the officials are absolved of any wrongdoing or responsibility. This is ironic.  

 

About the causes of thriving human and women trafficking, the media reports have failed to bring out the truth. Following the 10-point direction of the Prime Minister, a new sphere of corruption has emerged which is cross-national. That sphere is silently being protected by Purna Chandra Bhattarai and others. The media is silent about how demands are made in  Middle Eastern countries for female domestic workers and how those demands are processed, channeled and worked upon to reach the destination. The 10-point paper directs that the demand for individual visa for Qatar, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Baharain and Israel should come to the department via Nepal’s embassies. This is clearly against the law. 

 

In fact the demand for individual visa coming to the foreign employment department through the embassies have become the main source of corruption and human trafficking. Embassies are now working as foreign employment department without any infrastructure or legal authority. 

 

They are even raising money, which is also against the law.  And these goings on are not within the reach of common people. Even as a minister, it was out of reach for me. 

 

The media is not interested to find out the channels through which the names of the aspirant workers reaches the employees or the embassies. Because the aspirant workers are not recruited by our own manpower companies on the basis of the demand letter of the employers abroad, the whole process has become shadowy. Domestic workers, especially women, going through the illegal way are desperately unsafe. Women almost become slave within the four walls of their masters as their passport is confiscated on arrival. They are totally deprived of social security protection of both governments. 

 

The 10-point direction is pushing our manpower companies to indulge in malpractices and procure individual visas to protect their businesses. That is why and how the trafficking is thriving. A huge amount of money is being channelled through other ways into the country, risking the lives and liberty of our own people.

 

It is assumed that the workers aspiring for a visa are competent people with connections abroad, and they do not need the help of other people for the processes. Ironically the workers going on individual visa are being assisted either by the agents of manpower companies or by the volunteers chosen by Purna Chandra Bahttarai for labour certificate in the premise of the department. 

 

The undercover dealing for the certificates have increased five to ten times compared to before. The burden on the powerless migrant workers has increased many times over. In my knowledge, fake demand letters are being produced here too in collusion with officials who send the names of such people to the embassies to include in their website. I was told that Purna Chandra Bhattarai always guarded the office computers jealously.

 

There are different layers of authorities who take  money from migrant workers. In fact, the immigration department has no right to check documents other than visa but they do so unlawfully. I heard that two persons were arrested at the airport by intelligence authorities very recently for this. 

 

During my visit to India some time ago to attend an international conference, I asked the embassy officials about women being trafficked via India. What I came to know was shocking. I was told that Indian immigration officials, suspicious of migrant workers’ travel documents, calls the official at the Nepal embassy. The embassy, in turn, calls Purna Chandra Bhattarai about the person in question. Within an hour Bhattarai informs the Nepal embassy about the validity of the document on phone. Accordingly the decision is taken by the Indian immigration authority to let the person travel. I found the whole process arbitrary and manipulative. 

 

On my return I made further inquiries and found that a company named Yomuri has been receiving funds for the last two years to maintain a website providing information to migrant workers. No such website exists. 

 

Aware of the murky waters, I appointed Man Bahdur Vik for three months to launch a database to check the irregularities. The software would have checked corruption here and abroad to a great extent. But he was removed a day before the software was to be launched.  

 

But the media reports so far have only covered one aspect of corruption in the foreign employment department. There are many more. Knowing too much about them and not having taken part in the corruption, I certainly had become a threat. My impression is that human and women trafficking is tacitly being supported by different government authorities in the name of serving the national interest, as one official told me. 

 

I am aware that there are problems with manpower companies too. The problem has become so big because we have departed from the laws. Our challenge is to regulate the manpower companies according to the laws. But creating space for the state to do the business in place of companies is ominous in a free society. 

 

That’s why the 10-point direction is a step in curtailing the space for institutions and the private sector. Many of the points of the direction signed by the Prime Minister’s Office Secretary Lila mani Poudel—I never saw any 10-point direction signed by the Prime Minister himself or any such decision endorsed by his cabinet—are against existing laws. They have become instrumental in increasing chaos and corruption in the foreign employment sector. Ironically we are turning into a regime of executive directions and not that of law. The trend, if unchecked, is a serious threat to democracy. 

 

Giri is the former Minister of Labor and Transport Management. She was removed from office by the Prime Minister on March 23.