Kuwait to restrict hiring nurses via Kerala agencies
The CBI had also cracked a major racket involved in recruitment of nurses to Kuwait.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The impasse over the recruitment of nurses to Kuwait is likely to be solved as the Kuwait health ministry has decided to place orders directly with the government recruiting agents in India, including NORKA Roots and Overseas Development of Employment Promotion Consultants (ODEPC). According to sources in the emigration sector, the Kuwait ministry has issued guidelines the other day on making recruitments of nurses from abroad directly through government agencies.
The decision was taken in view of widespread allegations regarding recruitment of nurses through private agencies, which allegedly collected huge amounts from candidates. The Kuwait government had even suspended all recruitment of nurses from abroad. Legal actions were also reportedly initiated against some health ministry officials in this regard. The government of India had earlier restricted recruitment of nurses only through government agencies like NORKA Roots and ODEPC but later decided to allow private agencies to make recruitment to a specific country, in case of specific requests from foreign employers abroad.
However, even then restrictions were imposed in issuing such permissions to requests from private employers in Kuwait for making recruitment through private agencies here in view of allegations of corruption. The CBI had also cracked a major racket involved in recruitment of nurses to Kuwait. Compared to other foreign countries, nurses get more attractive remuneration in Kuwait and hence the exploitation in recruitment to that country was quite high.
After the Centre restricted recruitment of nurses through government agencies, the state government in 2015 made some initiatives with Kuwait health authorities for making direct recruitment through government agencies, especially NORKA-Roots and ODEPC. However the steps did not reach the logical conclusion allegedly due to undue influence of the recruitment racket on certain officials of Kuwait health ministry.
Apart from NORKA Roots and ODEPC, there are four other government agencies in India authorised to recruit nurses – the Overseas Manpower Corporation Ltd (OMCL) of Tamil Nadu, the Uttar Pradesh Financial Corporation (UPFC), the Overseas Manpower Company Andhra Pradesh Limited (OMCAP) and the Telangana Overseas Manpower Company Limited (TOMCOM) of Telangana.