By Ashraf Padanna/Gulf Times Correspondent/Thiruvananthapuram

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has sought the immediate intervention of Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj for clearing hurdles on the issue of recruitment of nurses overseas.
In a letter yesterday, Chandy said no country, except for Kuwait, had approached state government entities through the Indian embassy after new norms on nurses’ recruitment were introduced on May 1. Under the new regulations, the state agencies are the sole recruiting agencies for nurses overseas.
Foreign countries need to register through India’s eMigrate system electronically and post their requirement of nurses, which would then be vetted by concerned India diplomatic missions.
After banning private players, three state agencies, Kerala’s Norka-Roots, the Overseas Development and Employment Promotion Council (ODEPC) and Overseas Manpower Corporation of Tamil Nadu, were authorised to recruit nurses.
Meanwhile, nurses turned away by emigration authorities at the airports have swamped the office of Norka-Roots seeking assistance since the new regulations, including compulsory clearance from the Protector of Emigrants (PoE), took effect.
“No action has been taken by the Indian embassies in ECR (emigration clearance required) countries (except Kuwait),” the chief minister pointed out.
“The (migration) of nurses who had received job offers through legitimate means to the ECR countries has completely stopped”.
This has resulted in loss of job opportunities for Indian nurses and at the same time “other countries were taking advantage of this situation,” Chandy stressed.
Since Indian embassies in the ECR countries had not initiated any action towards speeding up the recruitment process for nurses as per the order, Chandy urged the federal government to issue the necessary orders on emigration clearance for nurses who have obtained legal job visas before the recruitment via government agencies order came into effect.
He also sought immediate action on blacklisting agencies involved in recruitment scams and the clearing of all pending legitimate cases without delay.
“The Indian embassies in all ECR countries must be requested to take immediate action for initiating dialogue with the respective governments as done by the Indian mission in Kuwait,” he said.
The government order had been issued on March 12 and nurses were allowed to join new jobs overseas till April 30.
On Thursday, one of the nurses who was sent back by the emigration authorities here said she had visited Sharjah twice - one for taking the health ministry’s qualifying test and the other for a job interview at a private hospital - spending a huge amount of money before being appointed.
Several others who reached Norka-Roots had similar stories to tell.
The PoE here has also written a letter to the federal government seeking a “one-time relaxation” for such cases for two more weeks.
Meanwhile, recruitment agents are claiming that the government’s action was not going to be effective.