Data from the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE), which issues permission to send workers to overseas destinations, shows that the number of workers leaving for foreign destinations with the help of individual contacts was 22,662 during the month between July-August of fiscal year 2011/12. [break]One year down the line-- in the month between June-July of 2012/13 -- the number has plunged significantly to 3,490.
Closer analysis of the data reveals that the number of workers finding jobs through personal contacts had started to decline significantly since the beginning of last fiscal year.
Thanks to this shift, the number of workers being recruited through institutional channels has increased to 263,786 during fiscal year 2011/12, up from 243,520 the previous fiscal year.
"This is a very encouraging turn compared to a year ago when the number of workers making their way abroad through individual contacts was far higher than those finding jobs through recruitment agencies," Purna Chandra Bhattarai, director general at DoFE, told Republica.
Job seekers flying off to foreign destinations through individual contacts was a headache for Nepali officials as Nepali and foreign agents used to encourage job aspirants to choose individual rather than institutional channels to evade responsibility toward the workers in case of problems at the workplace.
Manpower agencies were also indirectly involved in sending workers through individual channels, an arrangement under which officials find it difficulty to hold to account those associated with the recruiting process if something goes wrong.
Most workers who are subjected to exploitation at their job destinations are found to have landed their jobs either through their own contacts or through relatives with contacts.
The government´s uncompromising policy on individual recruitment --mainly for blue collar jobs in the Gulf and Malaysia -- has dragged down the number of job seekers using individual channels significantly, according to government data.
"We took the strict policy in an effort to minimize problems for workers at their places of work," stated Bhattarai, adding that it is especially workers willing to go to risky destinations who follow individual channels to get the jobs more easily.
"We have dragged down the number of permissions for individual channels to around 25-30 daily from 700-800 a year ago. However, we can´t bring the number down to nil as it is beyond our capacity to completely prevent workers who find jobs through the contacts of family members or other reliable persons," Bhattarai said.
With the government´s policy of discouraging the individual recruitment process since last year, manpower agencies are also turning to institutional processes.
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