Employees of the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) are reported to have issued work approvals illegally to 170 migrant workers and tried to cover it up by hiding the related files.

The migrant workers who received the unlawful permits were bound for Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, and were being handled by two recruiting agencies.

Various officials including the director of the final work approval section are suspected to have issued the final approval to individual visas under the names of organizations by matching the company and profession with the pre-work approval details acquired by the two manpower agencies, DoFE sources said.

The officials are alleged to have taken Rs 50,000 per worker in kickbacks from Aalamdevi Associates and KITS Employment Service to give the final okay to the workers on Jan 12 and Jan 17 respectively.

The case, which is currently being probed by the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), is likely to suck in around 100 individuals including DoFE staff, immigration officers, duty officers at the airport labour desk and owners of manpower agencies. More than 100 of the workers in question have reportedly left the country for their labour destinations.

Under the existing laws, migrant workers are allowed to travel abroad through personal channels only if the visa is referred to them by their blood relations. However, many manpower companies have been unlawfully giving organizational legitimacy to personal visas by bribing DoFE officials.

The incident came to light after the CIAA raided the DoFE office on Friday and Sunday in response to an anonymous verbal complaint. However, CIAA officers could not locate the concerned files which they claim have been hidden by those involved to avoid legal action.

After failing to find the related documents, the CIAA team collected explanations from almost all the staffers at the final work approval section and also raided the concerned recruiting companies. Most of the officials said they had no knowledge of the files. CIAA Assistant Spokesperson Keshav Ghimire said they were investigating the matter further but refused to provide details.

DoFE Director General Rabindra Mohan Bhattarai said his office had begun questioning the entire staff in connection with the case. The office has also written to the Department of Immigration and the labour desk not to let the remaining workers pass through immigration at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA).

“Our office won’t protect any officials involved if their wrongdoing is established by the investigation. We have also extended full support to the CIAA to continue its probe to trace the alleged involvement of our staffers,” said Bhattarai, adding that a hunt for the missing files was also going on. Bhattarai said the DoFE and its line ministry, the Ministry of Labour and Employment, had asked the CIAA to let the officials under investigation continue with their duties unless incriminating evidence is found as suspending them would affect the more than 2,000 service seekers who visit the department daily. The CIAA has not arrested anyone so far. 

The anonymous caller had accused almost all the officials at the DoFE’s final work approval section including Director Chiranjivi Adhikari, Section Officer Kumar Prasad Pokharel and Lava Raj Joshi. Department sources said other high level officials might get dragged into the case during the investigation.

Meanwhile, the Nepal Association of Foreign Emplo-yment Agencies (NAFEA) said that stern action should be taken against both the officials involved and the recruiting agencies.

NAFEA Chairman Bal Bahadur Tamang said the behaviour of DoFE and immigration officials had not improved despite the CIAA crackdown. “We had expected the situation to change following the CIAA’s recent action. But nothing has actually changed,” said Tamang.

Sources at the Labour Ministry said department staff frequently hid files to cover up their misconduct. “Hundreds of files have disappeared in the past, but the employees have become more cautious after the arrest of officials,” said a senior ministry official.

Last August, the CIAA arrested 64 persons from the DoFE, TIA labour desk, Immigration Department and three recruiting agencies for illegally issuing work permits to 77 migrant workers and subsequently hiding the files.

Published on: 30 January 2014 |The Kathmandu Post