KATHMANDU, Sept 4: Cases of fraud related to foreign employment have been surging every year. The Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) says that the complaints registered have escalated by six fold in the past five years.

According to the DoFE, it registered 15,904 complaints against the individuals found cheating the outbound workers in the fiscal year 2023/24. The number was just 1,255 in the FY 2019/20.

The DoFE records show that the number of complaints fell to 780 in the FY 2020/21, due to the impacts of the COVID-19 as the number of outbound workers dropped by a notable rate in the review year. However, in the FY 2021/22, the cases surged to 1,742, while it escalated further to 4,464 in the following year.    

Guru Datta Subedi, spokesperson for the DoFE, informed that the fraudulent cases nowadays are mainly associated with individual agents rather than manpower companies.

The DoFE records show that workers who have gone for foreign employment are more likely to be cheated at home than abroad. As of mid-March of the FY 2023/24, as many as 5,881 complaints were filed, out of which, only 752 complaints were against manpower companies while 5,129 were filed against the agents or middlemen.

The Foreign Employment Act 2007 has barred manpower companies from hiring agents while processing for recruitment of workers in companies abroad. In the past, manpower companies were permitted to appoint agents for the purpose.

According to the Foreign Employment Act, any individual or organization operating foreign employment business without obtaining the required permit faces legal action if found deceiving others by falsely assuring them of overseas employment opportunities and enticing them with the intention of fraudulently obtaining money.

If someone is found guilty of unlawfully taking money or sending someone abroad, the person responsible for such actions will be fined up to fifty percent of the amount taken and imprisoned for a term ranging from three to seven years, along with bearing the expenses incurred for the person's travel abroad, ranging from Rs 300,000 to Rs 500,000, as per the legal provisions enforced for the past three to seven years.

Despite having the legal provision in place, incidents of individual fraud are increasing through agents and brokers appointed by the manpower companies. In many cases, youths are found making payment to the agents and the manpower companies take the money from the agents. According to the DoFE officials, manpower companies through the process try to evade risk as the victims come to the department with complaints against the agents.

In recent days, the fraudulent cases related to the migrant workers aspiring for employment in European countries have been on the rise. Out of the complaints that the DoFE file, many are associated with European destinations.

Of late, youth are attracted to go to European countries like Portugal, Poland, Greece, Malta, Romania and Croatia, among others.  The UK, the USA and Canada are other lucrative destinations among the migrant workers.

Meanwhile, the DoFE filed 7,000 cases related to cheating of migrant workers in the past one year. Of them, 3,837 cases were settled, in which the victims were provided with compensation of Rs 309.30 million.

 
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