KUWAIT: The media spotlight in Kuwait has once again turned to the issue of recruitment of nurses from India after media reports suggested the alleged complicity of some Kuwaiti officials in the multi-million dinar money-laundering scandal. Meanwhile, some MPs have raised the issue in parliament, quoting press reports pointing out the gravity of the matter.

According to the media reports, MPs stated that they would raise the issue in the upcoming session of the parliament and demand an investigation into the whole issue to find out if any Kuwait officials are involved in the scandal or had colluded with the Indian racketeer Uthup Varghese.

Varghese, the main accused in the nursing recruitment scam and the owner of Al-Zarafa Travel and Manpower Consultants, was arrested by the Indian Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in March this year in Kochi on arrival from Dubai. As per the case, Uthup swindled job aspirants of around KD 14.12 million (3 billion rupees) by taking exorbitant service charges. While the norms mandate a service charge of KD 95 (Rs 19,500) for getting recruited to hospitals in Kuwait, Al-Zarafa charged nearly KD 9,000 to KD 10,000 (Rs 2 million) from each candidate. The CBI said Uthup amassed wealth running into millions of rupees and had attempted to influence others accused in the case.

It may be recalled that the India government had banned recruitment of nurses through private agencies in order to prevent high-level corruption and malpractices on April 30, 2015. The government also put nurses on the Emigration Clearance Required (ECR) category, placing their recruitment under a mandatory eMigrate system. It also appointed six agencies - NORKA Roots, ODEPEC, OMCL, UPFCL, TOMCOM and OMCAP - to carry out recruitment of nurses to overseas countries.

"Unfortunately, even two years after the announcement of the new system, not even a single nurse has been recruited to Kuwait through the eMigrate sytem," an Indian Embassy official told Kuwait Times yesterday. Although the Ministry of Health (MoH) and the Indian Embassy in Kuwait reached an initial agreement on the proposal in 2015, MoH has shown reluctance to pursue the new system as it believes the system lacks the necessary transparency. A top MoH delegation led by Dr Jamal Harbi, currently the health minister, visited India last year to follow up the matter.

However, certain alleged reports of violations such as parallel recruitments by government agencies themselves have created a major stumbling block to the initiative. At the same time, recruitments to Kuwait are still going on reportedly via Dubai, circumventing the eMigrate system and thwarting all official efforts to put an end to illegal recruitments.

The Indian embassy official informed that the Joint Working Group (JWG) of Kuwait and India has been scheduled to meet from Sept 18-20 and will discuss the matter. The Indian delegation headed by Minister of State for External Affairs M J Akbar will arrive in Kuwait to attend the JWG meeting, he added.

By Sajeev K Peter