Employment in Korea to resume only after implementation of biometrics

Published On: September 15, 2021 03:36 PM NPT By: RUDRA KHADKA

KATHMANDU, Sept 15: Employment in South Korea that remains suspended for nearly two years will resume only after the biometric system is implemented. Employment in Korea will not resume for another month after the South Korean government added a condition that the biometric system be made mandatory to resume the stalled employment.

Surya Prasad Gautam, secretary at the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security, said that work was underway to install physical infrastructures for biometrics after Korea added a condition that the biometric systems should be made mandatory. "The construction of physical infrastructure is starting as the employment process will not be smooth in Korea without the introduction of a biometric system," he said, adding that the work is planned to be completed by mid-October.

Korea has said it is pushing for a biometric system to stop fake test takers. "It is understood that the Korean government has emphasized the use of biometric systems after finding that the people who take the Korean language test and go to Korea are different," Gautam said. In the past, the police arrested people who had participated in the Korean language test for people who went to the country afterwards.

The biometric system is considered reliable because the person who takes the Korean language test has the thumbprint of the same person and therefore does not deceive the employer. Secretary Gautam said that the employer will be able to use the fingerprints taken while filling the examination forms in the biometric system till the last moment of hiring.

Despite repeated requests from Nepal to resume employment in South Korea, which has been suspended since 2020, Korea had earlier put forward the proposal that there should be a direct flight from Kathmandu to Seoul, Nepali workers must stay in quarantine for 14 days and that the workers should bear the cost. As the Nepali side agreed to accept these three conditions, Korea added another condition of the biometric system.

According to Secretary Gautam, a tender has been called to start direct Kathmandu-Seoul flights. Earlier, workers going to Korea for employment used to go there via transit flights. Secretary Gautam said that the cost of laborers will increase after the start of direct flights.