The government’s pledge to initiate employment of foreign domestic workers within 120 days of its tenure dominated the discussion in the National Assembly (NA) yesterday.
The Member of Parliament from Dramedtse-Ngatshang Constituency in Monggar, Ugyen Wangdi, asked Home Minister Sherub Gyeltshen to share about the progress of the pledge.
The MP also quizzed the minister if the home ministry has taken into consideration the country’s security and sovereignty while working to fulfill the pledge.
The home minister, in his response to MP, said a working committee chaired by the labour secretary has been formed to study the feasibilities to employ foreign domestic workers in the country.
“There are acts and regulations. However, we have to make rules and regulations stringent and conduct timely investigations. We have to make proper rules about dos and don’ts of foreign domestic workers in the country. This will not only avoid security issues but will benefit us as well.”
The minister cited the example of Singapore, where there are millions of immigrant workers managed by a digitised database.
He added that new regulations and digitised systems can be put in place which does not undermine the security of the country.
The Panbang MP, Dorji Wangdi, said that such move is not in accordance with immigration regulations and the Labour and Employment Act of Bhutan 2007.
The section 219 of the act says: “No person shall employ a foreigner unless the employer has an approval of the Chief Labour Administrator to employ a foreigner.”
“When we bring foreigners into the country, we have to consider our immigration rules, security issues, and past incidences. Is it feasible? Now, my direct question is that, if we bring foreigners in, from which countries we are planning to bring,” questioned the MP to the home minister.
To this, the home and culture affairs minister said that the government will wait on the working committee’s feasibility study before deciding anything. The minister also said the matter will be informed to the parliament at a later date.
