Its rationale for hiring an agency is the heavy rush for emigration clearance—6.77 lakh for employment and 5.54 lakh with Emigration Clearance Required passport last year—which has resulted in “abnormal delay and poor quality of scrutiny of applications”.

“Due to the increasing workload, there is hardly any qualitative scrutiny of the applicant’s details. As a result, the recruiting agent is able to smuggle all types of cases for clearances,” the ministry has argued while proposing e-governance of the emigration process.

The ministry’s scheme is that the agency with a wide reach throughout the country would collect emigration applications online, scrutinise them before recommending them to the Protector of Emigrants (PoE) for approval.

“Ultimately, it is proposed to integrate this (online filing) with Indian missions, passport offices and immigration counters at airport. It is felt that such an integration is likely to eliminate many types of malpractices involved in the system,” says the proposal which highlights human trafficking and slave-like working conditions as the growing malaise.

A pilot project for online filing has been tested successfully at Delhi, but detailed guidelines for its expansion would be developed in consultation with the Home Ministry, National Informatics Centre and scheduled banks.

As for documents, these would be sent to the PoE through a selected courier with the onus on the collection agency to deliver the approved papers to the applicants within a given time. “Any delay shall invite heavy penalty,” says the ministry which expects the scheme to reduce travel by applicants who presently trudge to one of the eight PoE offices which have become “an instrument of harassment” for the emigrants.

The MOIA also plans to cover job migration of even those with Emigration Check Not Required (ECNR) passports under the new system. Seventeen classes of people—including taxpayers, professional degree or diploma holders and those going on managerial jobs—are currently exempt from getting clearance from the PoE for employment abroad.

While shunning the recruiting agents in emigration clearance, the MOIA has separately proposed strict eligibility criteria for these job providers to weed out the fly-by-night operators who attempt human trafficking or harass and fleece the illiterate Indian labour. “A large remittance by emigrant workers ($12 billion each year) proves that they play a vital role in the development of the country and therefore they need to be treated with respect and dignity,” argues the ministry.