DOHA, 13 March, 2021, (TON): The government intervened and helped 10 Bhutanese women leave for Qatar four days after they were intercepted by airport officials in New Delhi who suspected them of carrying fake visas.

The women had left the country to work in the Middle Eastern country without registering with an authorized agent in the country.

Foreign Minister Dr. Tandi Dorji said that the women were stopped as they were boarding a flight to Qatar on March 1.  The government enquired the employer/company and officials in Qatar and found that the women had obtained work visas.

He said, “So we let them go. But the scenario (questions that have arisen with the incident) is being investigated,” The government, he said, interviewed a suspected agent, who denied the charge.

 He added that the government would not have encouraged them to work in the company had they gone through the prescribed channel.  He reasoned that Bhutanese employees had, in the past, faced issues related to payments and facilities they were entitled to in the company.

 The government, he said, had repeatedly notified jobseekers to go abroad only through registered agents to prevent unfortunate incidents.  He also said that jobseekers were not allowed to go abroad as domestic help.

According to the foreign minister, the women are working as salespersons and coffee baristas. “The women are safe and working.”

Lyonpo Dr. Tandi Dorji said that the processing of documents for overseas employment will now be carried out by the immigration department.  It was previously done by the labor and human resources ministry.

The government has now written to governments of the Middle Eastern countries requesting them to issue work visas to Bhutanese jobseekers only if they produce official documents from the Bhutanese government.