KATHMANDU: Fraud is fast becoming a rampant phenomenon in the Nepali foreign employment sector, with more scams coming to the fore over the recent months. Falgun month (mid-Febraury to mid-March) witnessed 57 foreign job-related scams compared to 33 cases in Magh month (mid-January to mid-February).

The Nepali foreign employment sector experienced 461 cases — 205 individual and 256 organizational — of fraud during the first eight months of the current fiscal year. Organizational fraud is increasing in recent months despite strong monitoring and enforcement of a code of conduct for the sector.

The Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) has taken serious exception to the growing cases of fraud. “The trend will go down after the Foreign Employment Tribunal (FET) starts in swing,” said Uma Shankar Joshi, director of the department.

The government formed

FET, a semi-judicial authority, last month to settle cases

including fraud related to foreign employment. Around 10-12 victims of fraud in foreign employment are approaching the FET each week.

According to the department, victims of foreign employment filed 461 cases claiming compensation of Rs 210.42 million in the first eight month of the current fiscal year while the department has managed to settle 120 cases till date.

The department has registered 37 cases — 29 individual and 8 organizational — worth Rs 128.95 million in court after no agreement was reached between the concerned parties. Victims of outsourcers withdrew 19 cases from the department in the period after reaching agreement with their respective agents.

As per DoFE data, Bhadra (mid-August to mid-September) was a more fertile month and Magh (mid-January to mid-February) was a dry month for fraudulent activities, with 83 and 33 cases registered in Bhadra and Magh, respectively. An average of 58 fraudulent activities was registered with DoFE in the first eight months of the current fiscal year.