Nurses’ bid for Gulf jobs on visit visa foiled

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Emigration officials at Thiruvananthapuram international airport have foiled a recent bid by a group of nurses to travel abroad using visit visas to take up nursing jobs in Gulf countries bypassing the fresh stringent norms prescribed by the centre.

Ever since the Centre banned recruitment of nurses by private recruiting agencies, a section of unscrupulous recruiting agents were allegedly resorting to the modus operandi of taking nurses abroad on visit visas and converting them into job visas. Hence airport emigration officials have been maintaining a vigil against this. Bureau of Immigration (BoI) officials even brought to the notice of higher ups this tendency of nursing graduates trying to travel abroad using visit visas and taking up nursing jobs.

Following a tip off that a mass recruitment drive would be taking place in UAE on October 30 and November 3, BoI officials at the Thiruvananthapuram international airport enhanced vigil and subsequently foiled the bid by nearly 20 nursing graduates to go to Abu Dhabi using visit visas to attend an interview last week. “Most of them were women and many insisted on going abroad. Some even threatened the officials of taking extreme steps to end their lives if they were not allowed to go,” sources told DC. BoI sources said that over the last few months many nursing graduates turned up with a visit visa.

“During screening we found that they were going to take up a nursing job and hence did not let them travel”. Earlier many Gulf countries allowed conversion of visit visas to job visas only if the candidates traveled back and re-entered the Gulf country. However, visit visas can be converted to job visas by paying an additional fee. This is being exploited by some unscrupulous agents allegedly by offering jobs with attractive remuneration.

In case of nursing graduates going abroad citing reasons of joining a spouse, emigration officials used to get an affidavit from them that they were not intending to take up nursing jobs in violation of government of India’s rules. Meanwhile, the Overseas Indian Affairs Ministry is learnt to be considering some relaxations in the norms pertaining to foreign employers registering on e-Migrate portal for all categories of employment. At a meeting convened by the ministry last week, recruiting agents cited various practical issues pertaining to the new recruitment system. Restoring minimum fee of Rs 20,000 for nursing recruitment was one major demand pressed by the three government agencies for nursing recruitment.

 

 

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