Nepal
Stakeholders in foreign employment have complained that the government's labour accords with destination countries have not been implemented effectively.
Although the government has signed labour agreements with Malaysia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), among other countries for taking the labourers at zero cost, this provision has been largely ineffective, they say.
Speaking at a discussion programme “recruitment advisor’s progress and the role of stakeholder bodies in the fair recruitment process” on Monday, they stressed the effective implementation of the labour agreements.
The General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT) organised the programme in collaboration with the International Trade Union Confederation.
An assessment by migrant workers using the Recruitment Advisor shows that 98 per cent of the labourers had to pay recruitment fees for foreign employment. Those labourers who paid fees had to pay Rs100,000 per person on average.
The employers of the destination countries have disclosed that they have been paying the recruitment fees of the labourers. In contrast, the foreign employment agencies in Nepal have complained that they were not receiving the service fees from the employers, said Laxman Basnet, general secretary of the South Asian Region Trade Union Council (SARTUC).
He said the labourers are given a receipt for a fee of Rs10,000, but in reality, they have to pay Rs100,000. He added that it is hard to speak out against this unfair recruitment practice in international forums because there is not enough evidence.
President of Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies (NAFEA) Rajendra Bhandari stressed the need to make the service charge due to the recruiting agencies well-managed.
He suggested amending Clauses 15–19 of the Foreign Employment Act, claiming that supplying labourers was difficult. Bhandari also urged reviewing the provision of revoking the recruiting agency’s registration for failing to send 100 labourers in a year.
GEFONT President Binod Shrestha called for stopping the unfair practice of charging Rs100,000 as a fee from the labourers in violation of the provision of zero fees. Stating that the form of exploitation has changed, he said those going abroad in the name of students were facing much exploitation recently.
Shrestha called for making foreign employment well-managed and effective with the cooperation of all sides.
Project coordinator of ILO Neha Chaudhary said the ILO has been collaborating with the trade unions to enhance labourers’ access to information and justice. She said the ILO was also collaborating with NAFEA to reform the code of conduct of the foreign employment agencies. ILO was also conducting studies on the recruitment process in Nepal due to the lack of such studies.
President of the National Network for Safe Migration Hari Thapa underscored the need for coordination among the stakeholder agencies.
South Asia Coordinator for Recruitment Advisor Sunil Neupane said that 2,244 Nepali workers had given feedback on the services of recruiting companies since the programme began in 2017.
According to him, the Recruitment Advisor programme operates in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in South Asia. European countries’ information is also being put into the Recruitment Advisory as destination countries.
