The best you can do is to rewrite the script using Net::SFTP::Foreign:

my $sftp = Net::SFTP::Foreign->new($host,
                                   user => $user, password => $passwor
+d,
                                   autodie => 1);

if (lc($function) eq 'get) {
  $sftp->get($file, $dest);
}
else {
  $sftp->put($file, $dest);
}
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