Top Stories»
Govt to turn off Iraq ban switch
- Travel mode to the war-ravaged country to get tighter
KATHMANDU, JUL 27 -
Nepal will lift the ban on Nepalis from working in Iraq on Wednesday.
The decision to lift the ban will affect around 35,000 Nepalis who are working under the CENTCOM contracting command and more than 10,000 working outside the contract.
Based on inputs from Nepali
missions in the US, Pakistan, Kuwait and from the US embassy in Kathmandu, Foreign Secretary Madan Kumar Bhattarai on Tuesday afternoon recommended lifting
the ban immediately. However, Labour Minister Mohammad Aftab Alam was out of the capital so it was put off for Wednesday, a Labour Ministry official said.
The ministry will hold a press conference on Wednesday and revoke the August 2006 decision to ban Nepalis from working in Iraq. The ban was placed after the brutal killing of 12 Nepalis there.
Officials in the US embassy here and from the State Department assured the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) that they will take the lifting of the ban as a positive step for Nepalis working inside Iraq. Nepal’s Ambassador to the US Shankar Sharma met Robert O. Blake, Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia, in Washington on Monday, and sought the US government’s cooperation in this regard.
“The US embassy officials here have said they have no reservations if Nepal lifts the ban,” a senior MoFA official said. The Wednesday announcement will make things easier for those currently working in Iraq but there will be stern measures for others wanting to work in Iraq in the coming days. “The decision does not mean hassle-free travel to Iraq,” the official said. Given the sensitivity of the issue, the good remittance pouring in from Iraq, no availability of data on Nepalis working in Iraq and threat of eviction, were major reasons for lifting the ban.
An email received by The Kathmandu Post from Baghdad from Col Richard Nolan clarifies the issue further. “The letter does not require contractors that are in Iraq illegally to be out of the country in 20 days. The letter requires you to identify these individuals to the Government in 20 days,” he said in the mail.
“Once individuals are identified, I recommend (company X) develop a plan for how you will repatriate those individuals and present a plan to the contracting officer that allows them time to hire replacement employees, get them in the country, get base passes while not letting the level of service they provide in Iraq suffer. A plan which offers to switch out employees in 60 days to 90 days is a reasonable request, but should be communicated to the contracting officer,” he added.
Posted on: 2010-07-28 07:50
Headlines
Advertisements
