Roshan Sedhai

In a bid to tackle anomalies in the foreign employment sector, the Department of Foreign Employment is planning to provide Nepali missions in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates with an access to its central database, authorities said.

The DoFE plans to connect the Nepali embassy in Malaysia within a week while it will still take few more months to connect the remaining embassies. In order to avoid the potential loopholes, the Department is bringing Sri Lankan Consultant. 
This initiative was taken after an access to the DoFE database given to embassies in New Delhi and Kuwait yielded positive results.
“We are excited from the response of embassies in New Delhi and Kuwait. The online access to information has played a vital role in controlling anomalies of the foreign employment sector,” DoFE Director General Purna Chandra Bhattarai said.
The DoFE had been working on the development of software named Yomuri in order to set up better communication mechanism with embassies of major destination countries for the past two years.
The online access to the DoFE database will enable the embassies to verify authenticity of workers, validity of foreign employment agencies and number of complaints lodged against them and to confirm information like workers’ pre-approval and final approval. “Access to detailed portfolio of workers has made it easier for embassies to handle the complaint without the DoFE’s help. The embassy in New Delhi used to write and call several times a day to get information regarding workers, but the access code has solved the problem,” said Bhattarai.
The mission in Kuwait has also revealed over a dozen cases of forged documents used by workers with the help of the access code. “The embassy in Kuwait has found out a new trend of showing separate work permits to the DoFE and the embassy authorities there. They have sent written letter to punish such malpractices,” said a legal officer at the DoFE.
The installment of the software was an important part of the 10-point direction of Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, 30-point suggestion forwarded by the Foreign employment Improvement Committee and 23-point direction of the National Vigilance Centre.  The software is a replica of the website used by Sri Lanka, the biggest dispatcher of migrant workers in South Asia.

 Published on: 20 August 2012 | The Kathmandu Post