Now no separate departure gate for labourers

The government has removed the separate exit door at Tribhuvan International Airport for labourers going abroad for foreign employment. Earlier, the departure gates for workers going on visit visas and labor visas were separate. The Ministry of Labor has also removed the labor desk also from Wednesday. There were protests by labourers over the second-degree treatment of workers by separate departure gates.

Similarly, voices were being raised to remove the labor desk saying that the workers had to suffer unnecessarily. As it was mandatory to go to the labor desk at the airport, the workers going for foreign employment had to sit in a separate line for almost a decade. Although the work permit would be issued on the basis of the documents submitted to the Foreign Employment Information System (FEMIS), the labor desk had been preventing the workers from entering the airport saying that the documents were not valid.

The desk had sparked controversy after the labor desk, which is headed by the joint secretary, started investigating the labor approval process again and again.