For the effective protection of Indian emigrants, the Government is now going for a new online emigration clearance procedure called ‘E-Migrate’. likely to be launched on 11 October, birth anniversary of Jai Prakash Narayan, RsE-Migrate’ aims to transform emigration clearance procedures in India in a simple, online, transparent and orderly way.
This means the present emigration clearance mechanism of the Protector of Emigrants (PoE) physically stamping emigration clearances on each passport will be stopped. And long queues before emigration offices, lengthy paper work and travelling distances etc will make way for easy online registration with just a click of the mouse.
As per the existing Emigration Act, Emigration Check Required (ECR) categories of Indian passport holders need Emigration Clearance from PoE, under Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA), before going to 18 countries for employment.
These are United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Malaysia, libya, Jordan, Yemen, Sudan, Brunei, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Syria, lebanon, Thailand, Iraq. There are ten PoE offices located in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Thiruvanan-thapuram, Chandigarh, Kochi and Raebareli.
Hence, often people have to travel long distances to get their ECR clearances.
However, soon the ECR/ECNR distinction of citizens (and passports) will be done away with and all emigrants would be required to register with MOIA before departing to a foreign country for employment. In fact, even students would be required to register themselves with MOIA before departure to a foreign country for studies. Enrolment and recruiting agencies would be required to register with MOIA prior to conduction education consultancy or recruiting business.
Under E-Migrate no documents would be required to be submitted physically, not even the passport. There is provision for online validation of passport data and online communication of Emigration Clearance to Bureau of Immigration (BOI) (under Ministry of Home Affairs) for facilitating actual exits. Applicants will get a unique ID number to track their case. After emigration clearance, applicant will have to take a printout and go straight to kiosks at airports that will do automatic stamping etc of the printouts. E-Migrate will also facilitate online collection of data from BoI and online validation of Data of Pravasi Bharatiya Bima Yojana policies for migrant workers.
Currently, the emigration clearance data is stored locally on a daily basis. But since E-Migrate will make emigration data available online, MOIA says, it will be easy for Indian missions to keep track of who is travelling where and for what purpose.
Through this it will also be easy to contact Indian nationals during emergencies, evacuations etc, besides reaching out to provide facilities. The Government will also be able to check the performance of recruiting agents and employers besides monitoring emigration offences. “Any conversion of tourist or visit visa to working visa will now be also available online to Indian mission,” said YS Kataria, spokesperson for MOIA. According to him E-Migration is going to have a huge impact since over 70 lakh people work in the Gulf region alone.
E-Migrate is also expected to prevent cases of cheating and underpayment on foreign soil to migrant workers since recruiting agencies need to give salary details and service agreements while filling the forms. Any salary less then prescribed norms of the Indian Government or the minimum wages of the host country will be rejected automatically online. “It has often been found that migrant workers are paid less than promised. But now since details of pay package have to be given online, the aggrieved worker can approach Indian missions if service terms are flouted,” said Kataria.
Trail runs in Delhi and Kolkata are over for the E-Migrate system. In fact, PoE Delhi office is already using the E-Migrate system for granting emigration clearance. Trials at Chandigarh, Raebareli, Jaipur, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Hyderabad, Chennai are likely to be completed this month. PoE offices here have been asked to approve at least 50 per cent demands and grant EC using the E-Migrate system as part of trial runs at these locations. During the trial run 6,039 Emigration Clearances have been given through RAs (Delhi: 5,586, Chd: 404, Jpr: 37, Rae Bareli: 8, Hyd: 4) while 2,006 EC were given to individuals (Delhi: 964, Chd: 9, Jpr: 11, Rae:6, Hyd: 972, Tvm: 14, Coc: 30)