KATHMANDU: Libya, a new destination for Nepali migrant labourers, is becoming a

least-paying destination due to the weakness of the government merely within three months of opening up.

The average wage offered in Libya to Nepali migrant labourers has decreased by an alarming 50 per cent between March and June this year. The $350 to $300 monthly salary that Libyan companies used to offer in March to migrant Nepali workers has now reduced to $175 in June.

It is $25 less than the basic minimum remuneration that was fixed by the Libyan government for migrant foreign labour. In March, Capital Employment and SOS Manpower had sent around 500 Nepali blue-collar jobseekers on monthly salary of $250 each, with lodging and board facility. This week, the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) received an approval application of $175 per month salary.

“We are looking forward to the other facilities it offers,” said DoFE director Bed Prakash Lekhak. There is the provision of lodging and board also, he added. The DoFE promise made on March 26 does not comply with the new application.

Earlier, on March 26, DoFE director general Mohan Krishna Sapkota had said that DoFE would not give send Nepali workers to Libya at salaries below $200 and without lodging and

food. While the income has contracted by 50 per cent, Nepali blue-collar jobseekers are still paying Rs 150,000 to Rs 200,000 for going to Libya where they would earn only Rs 14,000 monthly. Libya, once an isolated country in the African continent, opened its market for foreign investment in 2005. It is achieving double digit growth since the last three years.

In 2008, Libya had a gross domestic product (GDP) of $58.33 billion and per capita income of $4,400.

World Bank has forecast 7.3 per cent GDP growth there in 2009 despite the recession.

Unfair competition among foreign employment agencies is a key factor behind the decreased remuneration. Foreign employment agencies are promoting unfair practices of doubling the commissions of Libya-based agents which directly hits

poor Nepalis bound to Libya, said Tilak Rana Bhat, president of Nepalese Association for Foreign Employment Agencies (NAFEA).

Labour expert Dr Chiranjivi Nepal agreed that manpower agencies have doubled agent commissions and urged the government and foreign employment agencies not to ignore the plight of poor Nepalis.

“This is a chronic disease in the Nepali foreign employment agency sector,” he said, “They

and the government always ignore the interests of Nepalis.” He urged the government to be strict in order to safeguard the rights of Nepali migrant workers.