‘Entry' card law toughened

Kathmandu, June 5

The Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Nepal has said that the country has stopped employing workers through those Nepali manpower companies that have not renewed their licences with validity of at least two years from the Department of Foreign Employment, Nepal.

The embassy has published a notice, which states that it will not issue ‘entry' cards to manpower agencies that do not have a government licence that is valid for at least two years. Manpower agencies need to acquire ‘entry' permits from the Saudi Arabian embassy in Kathmandu to be eligible to send migrant workers to the destination.

As per foreign employment laws in Nepal, the manpower agencies need to pay a fee of Rs 10,000 for a licence with validity of one year. Similarly, for licences with validity of two years and three years, the recruiting agencies need to pay Rs 20,000 and Rs 30,000, respectively. As per the Department of Foreign Employment, there are around 1,200 manpower companies in the country that send migrants to Saudi Arabia.