Hyderabad: Overseas Manpower Recruiters Association (OMRA) has urged Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao to prioritise COVID-19 vaccination to overseas job seekers of the state in the ongoing vaccination drive.
OMRA president D S Reddy wrote a letter to the chief minister on Tuesday stating that there are lakhs of Indian citizens who came on leave from abroad and new job aspirants who are unable to travel due to the COVID-19 restrictions. He said they are waiting for the vaccination certificate as many Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are lifting the ban for the vaccinated travellers. Among the WHO-approved vaccines in India, only Covishield (Oxford-AstraZeneca) is available.
OMRA president asked the CM to prioritise the Covishield vaccination for overseas job seekers. “It would be a great relief for the emigrant workers and facilitate them to join duty without any problems and come out of their financial problems,” he stated.
“Though there are options to add passport number in the vaccination certificate as ID number at the time of online registration through CoWin, the staff at vaccination centres refuse to accept passport number as ID number,” he added.
The Kerala government was the first to facilitate online updation of passport number in the vaccination certificates as ID number to all the overseas job seekers. Reddy further requested to give preference to students, who are going abroad, in administering vaccines.
The OMRA is a registered association approved by the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, with members from all over Telangana state. They play a major role in providing overseas jobs annually, unburdening India’s unemployment.