By Ashraf Padanna/Thiruvananthapuram
The federal government has dismissed Kerala’s request for a three-month relaxation in new legal requirements for migrating nurses.
The government had banned recruitment of nurses by private agencies and made emigration clearance mandatory for 18 countries, including the six GCC members, from May 1 following widespread complaints of exploitation.
However, the date from when new requirements would come into effect was later extended till May 29 on a request from Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy as many nurses claimed they were denied clearance to travel abroad by the Protector of Emigrants (PoE) though they possessed valid job offers after clearing qualification tests and interview.
On Friday, the chief minister met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and requested for a further relaxation on restrictions.
However, the foreign ministry officials, who faced many hurdles in evacuating nurses from conflict zones in Iraq, Libya and Yemen, rejected the demand and suggested the rules could be relaxed in individual cases on merit.
“The foreign minister disclosed that the decision was final and if there were isolated cases, these could be considered separately and cleared,” said K C Joseph, the southern state’s minister for the diaspora.
“We have also requested them to bring housemaids under the new recruitment regime. This has been given in-principle approval,” Joseph added.
Thousands of Indian nurses, mostly from Kerala, migrate to the US, Europe and the Middle East each year.
It was alleged that agencies were charging jobseekers as much as Rs2mn each while they were entitled to collect only Rs20,000 as service charges.
Three state agencies, Kerala’s NORKA-Roots and Overseas Development and Employment Promotion Council (ODEPC) and Overseas Manpower Corporation of Tamil Nadu, are now authorised to recruit nurses.
Foreign countries need to register through India’s eMigrate system electronically and post their requirement of nurses, which would be vetted by concerned diplomatic missions of India.
Nurses turned away by the emigration authorities at the airports have been swarming the Norka-Roots office seeking assistance. Many of them have now travelled overseas after the government’s temporary relaxation in the new requirements.
The order on the new legal requirements was issued on March 12 and nurses were exempt from these till April 30. On May 14, the foreign minister extended date from when the new requirements come into effect to May 31.
