KATHMANDU, August 1

Along with the increase in the number of people eyeing foreign jobs, the number of cases filed at the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) seeking reimbursement from unscrupulous manpower agencies has also gone up.

Altogether 2,679 cases were filed at DoFE by workers, who claimed to have been duped by the manpower agencies and agents, and sought compensation amounting to a total of Rs 733.9 million in the last fiscal year. The number of complaints filed at DoFE in the last fiscal is up 7.12 per cent as compared to the fiscal year 2013-14, when 2,501 such cases had been brought to the department’s notice.

According to DoFE, the victims had filed 1,906 cases against foreign employment agencies with a demand for compensation of Rs 262.79 million. In the previous year, a total of 1,577 cases wereregistered against such agencies. However, the compensation amount sought that year washigher — Rs 276.17 million.

Lack of knowledge on safe migration for work, poor orientation training, and aspirants’ inability to check the reliability of agencies and agents are some of the reasons of workers being cheated.

“A majority of fraud cases filed against manpower agencies are about the workers discoveringthe type of work, company and salary to be different thanmentioned in the contract,” said an official at DoFE.

The official said that in a bid to help control fraud cases, from last month they have started to check job contracts carefully, also focusing on insurance provision and over-time duty facilities.

Nepali migrant workers can leave the country for work either by taking help of manpower agencies or through personal contact. Those leaving for foreign employment through manpower agencies are required to get ‘institutional worker permit’ and if a worker wants to leave under personal approach, he or she is supposed to get ‘individual work permit’ from DoFE.

Records of DoFE show that even though there is a rise in cases related to fraud by manpower agencies, the complaints by individuals who left for work through personal approach has come down.

A total of 773 cases had been filed at DoFE by individuals leaving for work under individual work permit, with compensation demand of Rs 471.1 million. The decline is attributed to strict implementation of provisions related to leaving for employment under individual work permit and fall in suchoutbound workers.

Number of workers who left obtaining individual work permit in the last fiscal year declined by 40 per cent to 10,027 from the previous fiscal year’s 16,707.

In the last fiscal year, a totalof 512,886 workers had left the country for jobs abroad, which was a fall in workers’ departure after a rise for five consecutive fiscal years. Of the total, 462,988 workers, including 13,311 females, had left the country by obtaining institutional work permit.