The government on Monday started registering aspirant migrant workers seeking work permit using eye-scan technology. 

The Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE), under the Ministry of Labour and Employment (MoLE), has started issuing work permit through eye-scan technology in a bid to make the application process for work permit hassle free and reliable, department’s Spokesperson Mohan Adhikari said. 

“This technology has been used for the first time in registering migrant workers. It will help speed up the registration process,” he said. The technology, brought in at an estimated cost of Rs 2 million, is expected to benefit thousands of applicants who visit the department every day for a work permit. 

A camera installed at the registration section is connected to the computer. The camera takes a picture of the applicant, standing on the other side of the office window, and is stored for future identification. 

The technology is also believed to cut down chances of error while scanning thumb prints of applicants.“We used to have problems with the previous system while reading thumb print of applicants. A large number of applicants, mostly working as labour, had their thumb prints erased or blurred due to various reasons including the nature of their work,” said Adhikari. “Thanks to this technology, we can now get around errors related to thumb prints.”

Earlier, nearly 10 percent of applicants’ data registered during orientation training could not be accessed at the DoFE and the Tribhuwan International Airport (TIA) at the time of departure. “Such problems will be resolved now as the entire data of the applicants from orientation training to work permit will be stored on a system,” added Adhikari.

Published on: 26 September 2017 | The Kathmandu Post