INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Kathmandu, October 31
A recent investigation by the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority has exposed how employees at the
Immigration Office of Tribhuvan International Airport collude with middlemen to grant departure permit to hundreds of people, mainly women,
on visit visa for Qatar and Dubai, in an unauthorised manner.
This was revealed after the anti-graft body arrested immigration officer Kamal
Prasad Parajuli from his office on July 31 for colluding with agents to send youths to Gulf countries in contravention of the existing laws
and rules, which prohibit sending women to Dubai and Qatar as housemaids
He was found putting departure stamps on their visas without maintaining their records to cover up his unethical acts.
Joint Secretary
Pradip Kumar Koirala, CIAA spokesperson, said Parajuli had teamed up with other immigration employees to issue departure permits to as many
They used to disable official computer network and exchange SMS for communication to decide who should be provided with departure permit on
visit visa.
According to the CIAA, other immigration employees involved in the illegal act are Manahari Baral, Dinesh KM, Toran Parajuli,
Chakra Bahadur Shrestha, Manoj Kumar Pokharel, Jagadish Chandra Nepali, Bijay Sapkota, Shailendra Dhakal, Birsingh Bhandari, Padam Prasad
Bajgain, Roshan Gautam and Bhoj Prakash Neupane
Gautam and Neupane are computer operators
According to call detail records retrieved from immigration employees, they did not verify any document or maintain records of women
migrating for work to Gulf countries on visit visa once the migrants provided them Rs 10,000 each, through agents.
They were found to have
destroyed evidence of departure of women without entering their details into the Immigration System of the TIA
According to the CIAA, the immigration employees had collected Rs 2.48 million from 248 persons for issuing departure permits
They were charged at the Special Court in accordance with section 3(1) of the Prevention of Corruption Act
The anti-graft body has claimed recovery of Rs 2.48 million along with a fine equivalent to the amount from each defendant.
The culprits
were dismissed from service and were handed down jail sentence
The CIAA said further investigation into other suspects was under way.
In 2012, the government had imposed ban on women below 30 years of
age from leaving for Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and United Arab Emirates to work as domestic helpers
To make the provision further stringent, the age bar was later reduced to 24 years in 2015 by imposing ban on the women aspiring to work in
Oman, Bahrain, Lebanon and Malaysia.
In March 2017, the Parliament International and Labour Relations Committee had instructed the
government to impose ban on Nepali women taking up jobs in Gulf countries as housemaids.
According to the 2019 report ‘Rights Situation of
Migrant Workers& released by the National Human Rights Commission, various studies showed that the ban did not stop women from migrating to
Gulf countries, rather they opted for illegal means to go to Gulf countries for employment challenging the restriction.
The government had
taken such measures to protect women migrant workers from forced labour and other forms of exploitation.
&However, these measures have not
discouraged the agents active in sending women abroad through illegal means
If a woman goes for foreign employment through illegal channel and she gets injured or dies during her illegal stay in the destination
country, her family members will not get any financial assistance from the government,& the NHRC said.
The post Immigration staffers sending
women workers to restricted countries appeared first on The Himalayan Times.
