KATHMANDU, March 26: Foreign employment agencies have declared a halt to their operations for an indefinite period stating that the legal fee set by the government for the services they provide to aspiring migrant workers was too low.
Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies (NAFEA) has said that the government should follow the international practice and revise the cap on fee, currently set at Rs 10,000, to allow foreign employment agencies to charge at least a migrant worker's one-month salary.NAFEA General Secretary Rohan Gurung said that they would be unable to send aspiring migrant workers on foreign employments as finding jobs abroad within the fee set by the government was impractical.
"It is impossible for the recruiting agencies to send migrant workers for overseas job within the service charge set by the government. The government should follow the international practice and allow recruiting agencies to take service charge that is equivalent to a worker's one month's salary," said he.
The employment agencies have stopped their services from March 6 in protest of a raid by the police at the offices of manpower agencies. Later, the agencies decided to resume their services only after the government rolled back its decision of free visa and free ticket system that came into effect from July 6, 2015, when Tek Bahadur Gurung was minister for labor and employment.
Under the free visa, free ticket system, an outbound migrant worker has to pay only up to Rs 17,000.
The Crime Division of Nepal Police conducted raids at 17 manpower agencies in the last week of February following complaints filed against them by various individuals.
As almost all manpower agencies under NAFEA have shut their services for the last 19 days, almost 50,000 visas are on hold, according to a record at NAFEA. Nepal receives 1,000 to 1,500 work visas in a day on average.
Gurung informed that the 758 recruiting agencies under the NAFEA have not been able to send workers even though they have collected the visas of the workers.
The spokesperson at the Ministry of Labor and Employment (MoLE) could not be reached for comment.
NAFEA and the ministry are likely to hold talks on the issue coming week, sources said.
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