Regulating foreign employment

A high-level panel constituted by the government has submitted its recommendations to systematize foreign employment which now contributes about 25 percent to the national income. We urge the government to implement the report without any delay so that lives of Nepalis working abroad and aspirant workers become little easy. Nepalis, mostly from modest family background, opt for foreign employment and send back the hard-earned money which is the only reason why Nepali economy is still afloat. If you take out remittance income from the matrix of Nepali economy, the economy will collapse immediately and the society will descend into chaos. This just highlights the important contribution of foreign employment. Sadly, such an important sector hasn’t received enough attention of the state and the country, on the one hand, is unable to exploit the full potential of foreign employment. On the other hand, Nepali workers abroad remain exploited both by the employers and the recruiting agents.



The panel has made several important recommendations, one of which is No Fee Recruitment System. It practically means that the current practice of recruiting agents extracting exorbitant fees from aspirant foreign job seekers should be scrapped. The panel has suggested that the agents should, instead, charge such a fee to the employers. This only sounds logical because the employers seek help from the agents in recruiting employees. And that is how the system works in many countries which have a long history of sending theirs citizens to foreign countries for employment. If No Fee Recruitment System can be strictly implemented, it will be a huge relief for poor Nepalis who either sell their only property to pay such fee or seek loan at up to 60 percent annual interest rates. This hardly makes sense because many a times whatever they earn and save abroad will be barely enough to repay the loan and interest.



There are also other important recommendations in the report such as, orientation for Nepali workers by Nepali missions before they embark on foreign jobs; construction of safe houses in major destinations; and provision for counseling and guidance for the workers by the missions. The report has also recommended review of minimum wages for workers on par with other labor-exporting countries and enhancing negotiation skills of Nepali labor attaches and mission officials to deal with labor issues with labor recipient countries. When it comes to safeguarding laborers’ interest, it is equally important to regulate recruiting agencies in Nepal. Many recruiting agencies make false promises and cheat unsuspecting, aspirant foreign job seekers. The government must set up monitoring mechanism to monitor such agencies and take preemptive measures rather than just wait for complaints from the cheated workers. The panel has also rightly suggested the government to review Standard Operating Procedures and Guidelines on recruiting agencies and provide incentives to best performing recruiting agencies and employers. These guidelines mean nothing unless they are strictly implemented.

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