Foreign employment firms shut down offices again

Say move to ‘create conducive environment for business’

KATHMANDU, March 7: Manpower firms have stopped sending Nepali workers abroad for foreign employment, protesting the government's 'free visa and free ticket' policy which, they argue, has threatened their business.

Nepal Association of Foreign Employment (NAFEA) says its members decided to shut down their foreign employment firms and stop processing documents for foreign employment.

NAFEA's First Vice President Kumud Khanal told Republica that it had decided to stop sending workers abroad until the government came up with a 'clear-cut policy' to make foreign employment service business safer and affordable.

"The government made various promises to us seven months ago. Those promises have not been fulfilled yet. Instead, the decision about free visas and tickets for clients has caused various anomalies to occur. And we have to bear the burden," Khanal says. "We will stop sending workers until the government signs a bilateral agreement with various labor-receiving countries and makes it mandatory for workers to get orientation before they start the process of seeking foreign employment," he adds.

However, government officials say the firms' protest and shut down was a strategy calculated to put pressure on the government to a 'keep a blind eye' on the firms' cheating of aspiring migrant workers. "They want the government to turn a blind eye toward their excesses so that they can continue cheating gullible workers who want to go abroad. However, the government will not relent under their pressure," a senior official at the Ministry of Labour and Employment told Republica, requesting anonymity as he was not authorized to talk publicly about the government's stance.

According to NAFEA's Khanal, acquiring work permits through individuals instead of using the institutional path by workers was becoming a trend and this was the main cause for 'anomalies' in the system.

He says the government's decision to enforce a 'free visa and ticket' policy had increased the number of workers going abroad on individual basis rather than through foreign employment firms. The policy requires the employer or agent to pay workers' visa fees and cost of tickets.

"After the government introduced the policy, employers and agents have been reluctant to demand workers through foreign employment firms. They find it cheaper to get workers through individual agents as they can get out of sponsoring the airfare and paying visa fees," he says. "This policy has threatened our business. Khanal demands that the government immediately scrap the 'free visa and ticket' policy.

NAFEA's shut down also comes in the wake of recent police investigation into some manpower firms on suspicion of fraud. Issuing a statement, NAFEA has termed the police investigation and arrest of some manpower firm operators as police 'highhandedness'.

He says the government's promises including bilateral agreements with destination countries and fixing a cost ceiling for workers, among other, have not been met.

Earlier on July 8, 2015, foreign employment firms had shut their operations for 17 days to protest the government's decision to enforce the 'free visa and ticket' policy. "We later withdrew our protests after signing an agreement with the government as it promised to conduct a study on the feasibility of such policy. The policy has proven onerous. The number of workers going abroad has come down significantly in recent days," Khanal says.

According to data from the Department of Foreign Employment published by Nepal Rastra Bank, the number of workers receiving final approval for foreign employment from the department came down by 22.5 percent to 210,315 in the first half of Fiscal Year 2015/16, compared to the corresponding period of the last year. In Fiscal Year 2014/15, 512,887 workers received approval.