Kathmandu: From Thursday onward, anyone planning to leave the country for foreign employment must acquire machine readable passport (MRP) to get work permit. On Wednesday, the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) said that it would not issue final work permit for individuals carrying hard-written passport.
Issuing a notice, the DoFE said that MRP is must to get final work permit irrespective of labour destination countries. In case of individuals who are already granted visa or in process of returning for employment after vacation will be issued the work permit for “certain period” based on the submission of certified receipt of application registered to acquire the MPR.
Krishna Hari Puskar, director general of the DoFE said that even as the provision affect foreign employment aspirants for temporary period, the mandatory provision of the MRP is in fabour of the outbound Nepali workers. The move is targeted to send workers bearing MRP as the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is scheduled to completely ban hand-written passports from November, 2015.
“Nepali in many labour destinations and transit points have already started to faced problems because of hand-written passport,” said Puskar. He added it is possible for Nepali reaching different counties to acquire the MPR through Nepali embassies too but since it will take three to four months, they could face trouble for local destinations’ law.
To the individuals who still have visa period in old passport, the government will state a message ‘cancelled without prejudice’ in the old passport after issuing the MRP. “This means individuals will require carrying both old passport and MRP,” said Puskar. The DoFE officials said that the MRP for work permit had been made mandatory after discussion with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and associations of foreign employment agencies.
Nepali embassies for long had also been asking the DoFE to issue work permit based on the MRP. The full implementation of MRP for getting permission to leave the country for foreign employment is also expected to discourage possible human trafficking and trend of flying for greener pastures using others’ passport.
It is estimated that out of 100 aspirants applying for foreign jobs 10-20 individuals are still carrying the old hand-written passport. Records on departure of Nepali workers shows that more than 1,500 individuals are leaving the country for employment abroad each day. Malaysia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and South Korea are the major destinations for foreign employment for Nepali aspirants.
Issuing a notice, the DoFE said that MRP is must to get final work permit irrespective of labour destination countries. In case of individuals who are already granted visa or in process of returning for employment after vacation will be issued the work permit for “certain period” based on the submission of certified receipt of application registered to acquire the MPR.
Krishna Hari Puskar, director general of the DoFE said that even as the provision affect foreign employment aspirants for temporary period, the mandatory provision of the MRP is in fabour of the outbound Nepali workers. The move is targeted to send workers bearing MRP as the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is scheduled to completely ban hand-written passports from November, 2015.
“Nepali in many labour destinations and transit points have already started to faced problems because of hand-written passport,” said Puskar. He added it is possible for Nepali reaching different counties to acquire the MPR through Nepali embassies too but since it will take three to four months, they could face trouble for local destinations’ law.
To the individuals who still have visa period in old passport, the government will state a message ‘cancelled without prejudice’ in the old passport after issuing the MRP. “This means individuals will require carrying both old passport and MRP,” said Puskar. The DoFE officials said that the MRP for work permit had been made mandatory after discussion with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and associations of foreign employment agencies.
Nepali embassies for long had also been asking the DoFE to issue work permit based on the MRP. The full implementation of MRP for getting permission to leave the country for foreign employment is also expected to discourage possible human trafficking and trend of flying for greener pastures using others’ passport.
It is estimated that out of 100 aspirants applying for foreign jobs 10-20 individuals are still carrying the old hand-written passport. Records on departure of Nepali workers shows that more than 1,500 individuals are leaving the country for employment abroad each day. Malaysia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and South Korea are the major destinations for foreign employment for Nepali aspirants.
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