The government decision to make free visa and air tickets mandatory for Nepali migrant workers visiting six Gulf countries and Malaysia has met with an instant and vociferous opposition of manpower agencies. For the last three days they have forced shut operations at the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE), thereby delaying the application process of up to 2,000 potential migrant workers who seek the department's services every day. In plain-speak, this is bullying. But their opposition to the recent government decision is also understandable. According to new provisions, the manpower agencies can charge a maximum of Rs 10,000 from job applicants. Earlier, they were charging a minimum of Rs 70,000 from each worker going to Gulf countries and Rs 80,000 each from those looking to work in Malaysia. These fees were fixed by the government. But in reality, the manpower agencies were known to charge migrant workers at least double the set amount; at other times they illegally arranged for a cut of the migrant workers' monthly salary, to be deposited into their bank account in Nepal by the employers abroad, their partners in crime. It was to end this blatant exploitation of Nepali workers that the government introduced the provision of free visa and air tickets.All these expenses will henceforth have to be borne by the employers—and only in that case will they be able to recruit from Nepal. It makes sense for employers to invest in their workforce if they believe the people they are choosing are competent. But this is not just a question of potential employers picking the right people. This is also a question of human right of migrant workers. It was unjust to force these migrant workers, most of them from dirt-poor families, to rustle up hundreds of thousands of rupees. Often, the applicants had no option but to borrow from loan sharks in the village. And where did most of this hard-obtained money end up? In the pockets of the conniving Nepali manpower agents who acted as middlemen. Of course, not all manpower agencies were guilty. But there were many who had no scruples in pinching every penny they could from poor applicants. Thus the government is right to end this inhumane and unjust system. Its decision morally justified, the government should now hold fast to its decision and should not, under any circumstances, bow down to the pressure tactics of manpower agencies.
The manpower agencies have no case. Their argument that foreign companies will stop recruiting if they will have to pay for visa and air tickets of their Nepali recruits is unfounded. There seems to be no correlation between employers in Gulf countries having to pay for visa and air tickets of their potential recruits and the chances of these people actually being hired. Our manpower companies have long been allowed to exploit poor migrant workers, which they have been doing with shameless impunity. If foreign companies want to recruit from Nepal, they must do so in a way that is in the best interest of their recruits, their future workers, and not in the interest of the unscrupulous middlemen.
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