Roshan Sedhai, Manish Gautam

RAJ Kumar (name changed), 21, visited the Syrup Health Care in Dhapasi for the mandatory medical test required for overseas employment. He underwent a general health check-up and received a certificate signed by Dr AK Bhattarai. According to Raj Kumar’s certificate, his haemoglobin count is two, body temperature 105.6 degrees Fahrenheit, blood sugar count 30 and white blood cell count zero. Going by the details enumerated, Raj Kumar is a dead man. “The doctor checked me and gave me a certificate that I don’t understand,” said Raj Kumar. “When I applied for a work permit to Malaysia, the authorities rejected my application saying that it was was fake.” Poor, illiterate aspiring migrant workers like Raj Kumar are easy prey for fraudsters who issue such fake medical certificates. The majority of the mandatory health certificates come with holograms and are issued by health institutes with a doctor’s stamp and signature but bear serious medical flaws. “Such flawed health certificates are rampant among migrant workers,” said said Surya Prasad Bhandari, director of the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) “The easy availability of such documents with authorised holograms in the market has been taking a great toll on aspiring migrant workers.” In a three-month cross-inspection, the DoFE scrapped at least 301 fake reports issued by 32 medical centres and clinics. According to the department, it has dispatched a letter, along with a list of health institutions found to be issuing fake certificates and holograms, to the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) to further investigate the matter. The consequences of such health certificate manifest in many ways. Such workers fail a subsequent test they have to undergo at their destination countries and are then sent back home from the airport. Others even die of health complications if they make past the second test. Data from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs attributes around one third of total migrant deaths to health problems, especially heart attacks, respiratory problems and gastric. Had doctors detected these problems in Nepal, these death could’ve been largely prevented. In order to assess the problem, the MoHP had formed a three-member investigation committee, headed by Dr Sinendra Raj Upreti, former chief of the Curative division at the MoHP, which inspected four health institutions. “Two of them were not that bad but the two others were not up to the mark.” Additionally, the Nepal Medical Council summoned 17 doctors on January 27 when it received complaints of their involvement in issuing flawed certificates. However, only four turned up. The Post attempted to contact the majority of those doctors, but only three of them were available for comments. Dr Ram Krishna Raj Bhandari confirmed that he signs health certificates but only after checking all the details. When asked if health institutions were misusing their stamps, he professed no knowledge of such activities. Similarly, Dr Purusotam Manandhar echœd Dr Bhandari. However, Dr Manandhar said that he has stopped practicing at the Bhanu Memorial Polyclinic and Diagnostic Centre, Tripureshwor as they might have misused his stamp. Dr Balaram Bista, on the other hand, said he has been constantly warning the clinic where he is practicing to not misuse his stamp and letterhead.

The easy availability of fake health documents with authorised holograms has been taking a great toll on aspiring migrant workers

Published on: 1 February 2013 | The Kathmandu Post