Despite four-month long diplomatic exercise by Nepali officials, chances of Israel restarting the process to recruit Nepali workers have become slimmer. [break]
Israel recently clarified, through Nepali mission in Israel, that it would not reopen the process of welcoming Nepali workers in its territory until the Nepali manpower agents stop the practice of collecting exorbitant fee from Nepali workers and break the nexus with Israel-based Nepali brokers, according to a highly placed source at the Ministry of Labor and Transport Management (MoLTM).
"Israel is refusing to sit for dialogue with us, stating that Nepali manpower agents have been found indulging in works that they are not supposed to do," the source told myrepublica.com. Israel has also expressed serious objection over increasing number of Nepali workers doubling as manpower agents in Israel.
Nepal has sped up diplomatic efforts to sort the issue with the visit of Minister for Labor and Transport Management Mohammad Aftab Alam to Israel.
"Israel has expressed its unwillingness to immediately sit for dialogue," the source added.
Though Nepali mission in Israel has already informed the MoLTM about Israel´s position on the issue, Minister Alam has been trying to assure Nepali manpower agents of immediate resumption of the process to send Nepali workers to Israel.
The Nepali manpower agents have been demanding the government to take fresh initiatives in resuming the process.
Nepali manpower agents have been claiming that the investment of about Rs 500 million have become uncertain after Israel stopped accepting Nepali workers. "Manpower agents have collected more than Rs 80 million from over 400 job aspirants who have already received visas from Israel. The agents have invested more than Rs 420 million to acquire demands from Israeli employers," a manpower agent said.
Though the government has allowed the manpower agents to collect Rs 270,000 per person, the manpower agents were collecting as much as Rs 800,000 per person, claiming that they have to pay hefty sum to foreign agents as commission.
Proposed names will be reviewed: Alam
Minister Alam said the government would review the names of persons proposed by the erstwhile government as labor attaches in various countries. Alam, however, refused to divulge reasons behind the revision in the name for the posts, created to handle growing labor issues in major host countries.
"We will speed up the process of nominating labor attaches in four proposed labor destinations. However, the names approved by earlier government will be changed," Alam told a press conference organized by the MoLTM here on Monday.
The Maoist-led government had proposed Amal Kiran Dhakal to Malaysia, Prakash Mohan Joshi to Saudi Arabia, Parbati Aryal to the United Arab Emirates and Hira Devi Paudel to Qatar.
prabhakar@myrepublica.com
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