The government has ended the discriminatory structure of treating migrant workers, who are the backbone of the country's economy, as second-class citizens at the point of departure. The 'Labor Desk' at Tribhuvan International Airport has been removed under the leadership of Labor, Employment, and Social Security Minister Krishna Kumar Shrestha.
The government has abolished the structure to end the situation where workers going for foreign employment have to line up for hours at the labor desk at the airport to sign their signatures even after the entire process related to foreign employment has been completed online.
The government has implemented the earlier decision to remove the structure after complaints were received that the Labor Desk had harassed the workers in the name of investigating the labor approval process even after the Foreign Secretary's Office headed by the Joint Secretary gave the approval. During the tenure of former minister Gokarna Bista, the department had started work to remove the structure.
The government has implemented an online information system (FEMIS) since 2075 BS to make foreign employment fully online. With the implementation of FEMIS, work from demand letter verification to labor approval has been completed online. The Department of Foreign Employment has been issuing new labor permits and re-labor permits online from the same provincial labor office.
A labor desk was set up at the entrance of the airport to test whether the labor stickers affixed to the passports of workers going for foreign employment were genuine or counterfeit. When the online system was not implemented, labor stickers had to be affixed on the passport. Now online labor stickers go to the workers' email and mobile numbers. Labor stickers do not have to be affixed to the passport.
Even though labor stickers have started being issued online, fraud against workers by making fake stickers has come to an end. The ministry says that after the issuance of labor stickers online, the justification of the labor desk to look for genuine or fake labor permits has ended. As soon as the desk is removed, the workers who have reached the airport to go for foreign employment are no longer forced to wait in line for hours for the entry and labor permit sticker test.
Director-General of the Department, Shesh Narayan Poudel, says that the labor desk at the airport has been removed for the sake of self-respect and convenience of the workers going for foreign employment. He said that the labor desk is not necessary in case the labor permit is fully online, the Department of Foreign Employment and the immigration software can be integrated to check whether the labor permit has been obtained at the immigration desk or not.
Arrangements have been made for the workers to enter the airport from any of the gates as they were allowed to enter through the limited gate as before. The airport currently has three entrances. "Due to the compulsion to go to the labor desk, the workers going for foreign employment have to use only gate number 1 and that gate is overcrowded," he said.
Doctors, engineers, and highly skilled workers who go for foreign employment with labor permits also had to sit in the same line. Even if the other entrances to the airport were empty, workers going for foreign employment would only have to use the same entrances.
Director-General Poudel said that the government has taken a historic decision in the face of repeated complaints of being humiliated and discriminated against in its own land and the self-esteem of the workers.
Earlier, the process of boarding would go ahead only after the workers going for foreign employment and on leave had to go to the labor desk and get the signature stamped by the desk. Workers will now be able to enter the airport from any gate without going to the labor desk. "Now all the gates of Tribhuvan Airport are open to everyone," he said. The Department of Foreign Employment will set up an information center at the airport. The center will work for the relief of troubled workers.
In the first seven months of the current fiscal year alone, more than 350,000 workers used the Tribhuvan Airport. Earlier, 2,000 workers who arrived at the airport daily to go for foreign employment had been suffering due to long queues and the imposition of labor permits. They are also happy after the removal of the labor desk.
Former Director-General of the Department, Dr. Bhishma Kumar Bhusal, said that it was a matter of great happiness to see an end to the clearly discriminatory structure of treating Nepal's economic workers as second-class citizens. The department had planned to remove the desk from the airport two years ago.
The matter could not be taken forward as the then Secretary of the Ministry of Labor did not approve the decision to remove the Labor Desk after completing all the preparations. "It addresses workers' self-esteem and feelings. The Labor Desk has put an end to the fear of suffering and the contemptuous view of workers as 'labor', ”he said. Former Director-General Bhusal also thanked the Minister for Labor, Secretary and the Director-General of the Department for implementing the announcement even though it was delayed.
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