BADRI POKHAREL

DOHA THE Nepal embassy in Doha has made it mandatory for individual employers to seek its ‘employment permission’ before hiring Nepali workers through individual process.

According to the new rules, an individual employer will have to submit to the Nepali embassy a copy of the worker’s passport, a copy of visa, an employment contract verified by the Qatar Chamber of Commerce and Industry and a valid Qatari ID of the individual concerned with a processing fee of QR60.

The documents collected by the embassy will then be sent to the Ministry of Labour and Transport Management (MoLTM) in Nepal.

The foreign employment permission will be granted only after the documents are properly verified.

The new rules will prevent illegal processes used for recruitment of Nepali workers in Qatar.

Talking to Qatar Tribune, Nepal’s Ambassador to Qatar HE Dr Surya Nath Mishra said, “The embassy has taken the initiative after we received complaints of a large number of cases of Nepali workers being left in the lurch by their employers.

More than 50 percent of Nepali workers are coming through individual process for the last few months.

Altogether 56,123 workers entered Qatar between July 2010 and February last.

Out of them, 31,725 arrived through individual processes.” The envoy further said, “The embassy is receiving regular complaints related to fraud cases, runaway workers and fake employment contracts.

Most of the Nepalis who suffer from such cases come through a channel, locally called ‘Tanuwa Visa’.

In such cases, some individuals have visa of a particular company while their employment contract belongs to someone else.” The employer’s organisation, in these cases, cannot be legally forced to provide salary and other benefits in accordance with the terms specified in the fake documents.

The embassy has, therefore, introduced the new norms to ensure the safety and rights of the workers, the envoy said.

“I am very optimistic that the new measures will help in reducing the number of complaints, and increase in tax revenues for both countries,” he said.

The envoy said that most of these workers make their way to Qatar by paying a hefty sum back home.

The people who bring these workers through the individual process are not answerable to the embassy.

“Those workers face a lot of difficulties after arriving in Qatar.

There is currently no database of runaway workers.

We hope that the new measures taken by the embassy will be useful in helping us cope with the problems,” the envoy said.