By Purushottam P. Khatri
Kathmandu, May 28: Some Indian workers travelling to Saudi Arabia via Nepal have been found carrying outdated PCR reports.
The government has allowed the Indian workers to fly to Saudi Arabia on charter flights from Nepal since last week.
Currently, more than 250 Indian workers are flying to Saudi from the Tribhuvan International Airport on a daily basis, according to the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) office.
As per the air bubble agreement between Nepal and India, regular flights between the two countries have been maintained. According to the airport, 10 charter flights to Saudi Arabia are in operation every week for the Indian nationals.
Indian workers started flocking in to Nepal to go to Saudi Arabia as soon as Nepal started operating charter flights to Saudi Arabia.
However, an employee of the Gulf Approved Medical Centre (GAMCA) Nepal said that many Indians who travelled to Saudi Arabia had submitted fake PCR reports and the PCR tests conducted more than 10 days ago.
The GAMCA Nepal staffer informed that they had informed the Ministry of Health and Population about the submission of outdated PCR reports.
“The Indian workers who come to Nepal and stay here for 10 days are submitting their reports of the PCR tests to a medical centre here in Nepal but the tests reports are found to be issued 10 or more days earlier,” an employee said on condition of anonymity.
GAMCA Nepal has been examining the health of workers flying to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Oman for foreign employment.
Dr. Sameer Kumar Adhikari, deputy spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Population, said that the concerned parties have been instructed to allow travel to the Indian workers going to Saudi Arabia only if they produce a PCR test report conducted within 72 hours.
Stating that the Ministry of Health was not aware of the fake PCR report, Dr. Adhikari said that he would seek further information in this regard. “The PCR tests conducted in Nepal and India are valid but they should be conducted within 72 hours,” Dr. Adhikari said.
With the outbreak of the second wave of the coronavirus in Nepal, Gulf countries like Malaysia and European countries have banned international flights. But when Nepal started operating charter flights for the Indian workers, some employer countries have started keeping Nepal in the red list.
Foreign employment entrepreneurs have said that the companies of the employer countries have stopped allowing Nepali workers, who had come to Nepal on home leave, to return to their country of employment.
Although the government has allowed the Indian workers to fly to Saudi Arabia on charter flights, they have complained that no decision has been taken on the issue of operating charter flights for the Nepali workers, who had come to Nepal on home leave.
The entrepreneurs said that more than 3,000 Nepali workers who are currently on home leave are unable to fly to Saudi Arabia.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) said that 3,000 Indian workers who came to Kathmandu for a transit flight to Saudi were permitted to fly by chartered flights since last Monday.
The government has banned international flights since May 6 to control COVID-19 infection.
The government is operating chartered flights to India, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and China. So far, 70 chartered flights have taken place after May 6, according to the TIA.