The political class may seem totally focused on elections and neglectful of matters of governance but this does seem to be true for certain state organs. The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) in particular has been extraordinarily active since the appointment of Lokman Singh Karki as chief commissioner. Numerous government officials and others have been arrested for taking bribes and other anomalies. Most recently, three dozen immigration officials were arrested for their alleged involvement in helping overseas employment companies acquire work permits for around 77 workers by submitting fake documents. The CIAA also arrested the operators of four such companies on charges of bribing officials at the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE). These arrests, it seems, have led authorities involved in migration to step up their monitoring. On Saturday, for example, the Department of Immigration (DoI) stopped around 100 Gulf-bound Nepali workers at the Tribhuvan International Airport after coming across irregularities in their documents.

It is painfully obvious that the migration of such large numbers of Nepalis to the Gulf countries and South East Asia poses severe challenges to the state. Unscrupulous manpower agencies have long taken advantage of the desperation of Nepali citizens. Many Nepalis pay large sums of money to go abroad, only to realise when they get there that the jobs they were promised don’t exist. Many others find that their salaries are meagre and the living and working conditions horrendous. It is to prevent such problems that the government has instituted various regulations over the last few years.

However, the many Nepalis who wish to go abroad for work find the bureaucratic hassles they have to overcome excruciating. As with all other sections of the Nepali bureaucracy, the immigration authorities do not work efficiently. There is also the problem of corruption. As a result, the people who have to pass through this system find it to be a burden that comes with additional costs, rather than a system that is geared towards protecting them. This is why so many Nepalis seek to evade the process and thus, fall victim to unscrupulous agents.

The primary task is to ensure that government authorities involved in labour migration act in a transparent and accountable manner. If approaching them is easy and does not cost much, then there will be no incentive for prospective migrants to seek the services of dubious agents. The current intervention by the CIAA in the immigration sector is important for this reason. The recent arrests are all well and good but they cannot be the end goal. We hope that the CIAA’s efforts will help ensure greater transparency and accountability in the migration process.

Published on: 26 August 2013 | The Kathmandu Post