Labor permits being issued based on fabricated documents

The Labor and Employment Office in Janakpur has been found issuing work permits on the basis of fabricated documents.  Because of this, youths have been deprived of foreign employment opportunities. Not only foreign employment opportunities, workers have also been subject to financial losses incurred in the purchase of air tickets and the processing of labor permits.

The irregularity within the labor office came to light following the interception of several workers heading for overseas job destinations by the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) Immigration Office. 

Sources have pinpointed the involvement of Section Officer Basuki Nath Jha, Nayab Subba Umesh Kumar Dahal and Ram Balak Yadav, and translator Shamsad Alam in issuing labor permits on the basis of fake documents. Inexplicably, the Department of Foreign Employment and the Department of Labor and Occupational Safety have refrained from taking action or initiating investigations into these allegations. The authorities have neither penalized the culpable individuals nor pursued corrective measures. 

The Labor and Employment Office in Janakpur opted to deflect attention by dismissing translator Alam from their ranks. The extent of the wrongdoing at the Janakpur-based office emerged when three aspiring jobseekers en route to Kuwait were denied passage by the TIA Immigration Office. Chandra Bahadur Gurung, Raj Kumar Shrestha, and Kaji Ram Shrestha were refused departure after it was discovered that their labor permits were issued on the basis of  counterfeit Kuwaiti civil identification documents. 

Chandra Bahadur and Raj Kumar were embarking on foreign employment for the first time, while Kaji Ram had previously worked in Dubai on two occasions. It was also found that contract agreements signed with employers, which the youths were carrying, were also fake. 

While Section Officer Jha sought to distance himself from the issuance of Kuwaiti labor permits, suggesting that any mistakes may have been made by the translator, other officials contest this explanation. They assert that labor permits cannot be granted solely on the basis of translation.  Sources within the Ministry of Labor, Employment, and Social Security have said that they have received complaints of wrongdoings by the Janakpur office. “We are in the process of getting more details,” a source said. Not only Janakpur, similar wrongdoings have also been reported against labor and employment offices in Pokhara and Biratnagar.