Immigration officials have been judging passengers based on their appearance

People have been suffering due to the government’s restrictions on migrant workers flying to Gulf countries — Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman. Immigration at Tribhuwan International Airport (TIA) has been stopping people from flying on visit (or tourist) visas to the destinations.

However, authorities — Department of Immigration and Department of Foreign Employment — rejected the blame that they are creating hurdles for genuine visitors bound to Gulf countries. “We are not stopping genuine visitors. Our target is just to stop worker migration through visitor visas,” said an officer at the Department of Immigration.

According to him, the immigration office at TIA has been following the government’s directive. “We have been directed to scrutinise visitor visa holders and we are doing it perfectly,” he said. However, he admitted that there could be obstacles at times for genuine visitors. “There might be some people who have suffered from the scrutiny process due to human errors,” he said.

Department of Foreign Employment — regulatory authority on foreign employment — said that being strict regarding visitor visas has provided desired results in controlling illegal migration. “Illegal migration has reduced significantly since the process began at TIA some six months back,” said director at the department Surya Prasad Bhandari.

Earlier, about 150 to 180 migrant workers used visitor visas to fly to Gulf countries every day. “Most of them stayed back and worked illegally there,” he said, adding that currently, the number is below a dozen. According to him, scrutiny of visitor visas is not a bad decision because it will help protect Nepali migrant workers from possible abuse and exploitation in Gulf nations.

“About 1,500 migrant workers leave the country every day, so some people might have suffered due to the scrutiny,” he said. He admitted that genuine visit visa holders will not suffer from the process. According to him, they are working with immigration officials to reduce such sufferings.

“Globally, such investigations are done by humans, so we cannot expect ‘zero suffering’ in immigration scrutiny,” he said.

Currently, immigration officials at TIA have been judging visit visa holders according to the passenger’s face and the clothes they wear. If someone is found suspicious, then that person is interrogated. However, immigration officers at TIA do not have training on passenger psychology to judge them.

Published on: 7 December 2012 | The Himalayan Times