KATHMANDU: A section of manpower operators have been pressuring the government to set up Qatar visa center in Nepal to fulfill their vested interest.

Minister for Labor, Employment and Social Security Gokarna Bista had earlier issued an order to halt the opening of the Qatar visa center that was said to be opened in November last year.

Qatar had made final preparations to open a visa center in Nepal to minimize the problems faced by migrant workers heading for Qatar. All the infrastructures for the purpose were being developed inside the Qatari Embassy in Kathmandu.

Manpower operators including, Tek Bahadur Gurung, former Minister of State for Labor and the owner of Himalayan Manpower Pvt. Ltd., Ramesh Koirala, Nepali Ambassador to Qatar and Hem Raj Gurung, the owner of SOS Manpower Pvt. Ltd., among others are lobbying to open the visa center.

Once the visa center opens without signing the labor treaty, the manpower operators can charge high amount of fee to the Qatar-bound Nepali workers in the name of health treatment, according to a staff at the Embassy of Nepal in Doha.

According to sources, half a dozen people including non-resident Nepalis in Qatar want the visa center in Kathmandu so that they could extort high fee from Qatar-bound Nepali youths in the name of health checkups and other procedures.

The group is also lobbying the Department of Immigration in Qatar, the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Security, staff at the Embassy of Qatar in Nepal and also Biomet, a Singapore-based company licensed for opening a visa center in Nepal.

Qatar had made final preparations to open a visa center in Nepal to minimize the problems faced by migrant workers heading for Qatar. All the infrastructures for the purpose were being developed inside the Qatari Embassy in Kathmandu.

Nepal had signed a labor treaty with Qatar in 2005. Currently, discussions are on with the technical teams of Qatar and Nepal for labor treaty, according to a source at the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Security. Earlier, Minister Bista had consulted with Yousuf Bin Mohammed Al-Hail, Qatari ambassador to Nepal.

If the visa center comes into operation, a worker heading for Qatar needs to pay USD 18 to the center before their departure. However, there has been a propaganda that one does not need to pay the visa center, according to a manpower operator.

A Qatar job aspirant has to visit the manpower company for the final labor approval after paying the USD 18 to the visa center. The visa center shall obtain the workers through manpower companies.

However, the workers have been informed that the entire processing is done via the visa center. It is said that the center would conduct health check-up, fingerprints and opening files for those willing to go to work in Qatar and signing the contract after the visa is issued.

The manpower operators say that an aspiring worker needs to pay up to Rs. 7,000 to the visa center.

According to the government record, an estimated of 400,000 Nepali workers are working at various sectors in Qatar, currently.