KATHMANDU, March 26: The government's proposal to contract out immigration services to the private sector has drawn flak from various quarters. Not only security experts and former bureaucrats, parliamentarians are also against the proposal that the home ministry has forwarded to the cabinet for approval.
The home ministry has proposed contracting-out immigration services to the private sector for 15 years.
Parliamentary Committee on International Relations and Labor on Wednesday decided to summon Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Bam Dev Gautam and Foreign Minister Mahendra Bahadur Pandey to seek clarification regarding the proposal in its next meeting scheduled for March 29. The meeting has concluded that issues like visa issuance should not be given to third-party.
Chairman of the parliamentary committee Prabhu Sah said the ministers have been summoned for clarification as lawmakers strongly demanded that the government should not hire third-party to provide immigration services. "We have summoned both the ministers to learn what the government is planning to do. If the government is seriously working to contract-out immigration services to the private sector, it is committing a grave mistake," said Sah.
Although the home ministry has argued that the move will make immigration services more effective and hassle-free with the use of advanced technologies, there are concerns from various quarters that this is likely to pose a serious threat to national security. "Today they have proposed giving the visa issuing authority to the private sector. Someday they might come up with a proposal of leasing the country. These kinds of irresponsible acts must be stopped," said former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal.
Addressing a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on International Relations and Labor, senior CPN-UML leader Nepal also alleged that home ministry's leadership was trying to introduce the system for money and commission. Interestingly, the home ministry, which floated the proposal, is headed by UML vice chairman Bam Dev Gautam.
Likewise, several lawmakers, including Chudamani BK Jangali and Shyam Shrestha argued that the government had acted irresponsibly. They also suggested the parliamentary committee to immediately issue directives not to move ahead with the proposed plan.
The home ministry has clarified that it plans to hire a private firm only for collect visa application forms, supporting documents and biometric data before sending them to the Department of Immigration for approval. "What has come out in the media is not true. Private sector won't be given the authority of issuing visa. They will only collect visa application forms, supporting documents and biometric data," Home Ministry Spokesperson Laxmi Prasad Dhakal told Republica.
Dhakal said that the proposal floated by the home ministry is not a new concept. "Many countries in the world have been following this practice for long. The proposal is aimed at modernizing immigration services," he said, while giving an example of VFS Global that manages visa applications for UK.
The home ministry has maintained that contracting out works related to visa processing is necessary to modernize the immigration service. The ministry has said this would help introduce e-visa as per the requirement set by International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO) in near future.
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