Kathmandu, September 15

The government has initiated the process to introduce a mandatory provision that would require manpower agencies to mobilise only authorised agents to search for overseas job-seekers.

The Ministry of Labour and Employment (MoLE) has started the process to amend the Foreign Employment Act 2007, through which only authorised manpower agents would be allowed to work as brokers between migrant workers and manpower agencies.

According to Bhuwan Kumar Acharya, joint secretary and spokesperson for MoLE, the ministry is preparing the initial draft of amending the act, which will include the provision of registration of manpower agents. “MoLE is planning to implement the registration system for agents through an amendment to the act.”

After receiving a number of complaints that migrant workers have had to face numerous problems due to negligence of agents, the government is planning to change the existing law to address it.

“There are many cases of migrant workers, who came in contact with the manpower agencies through individual agents, facing multiple problems during their employment period. Many youths are cheated and overcharged by the agents and agencies. The government is planning to control it,” said Acharya,

Earlier, the MoLE had formed a recommendation committee, coordinated by MoLE Joint Secretary Tej Raj Pandey, to look into the issue. In its report, the committee had also suggested introducing a compulsory provision of registering manpower agents.

As per Acharya, if the amendment is endorsed, agents would have to get registered at the District Administration Office (DAO) from where they have been issued their citizenship certificates. After that, the Department of Foreign Employment will certify them and then only would the agents get the permission to work as brokers. “This would make it easier to track down the agents and is expected to significantly bring down the cases of migrant workers being duped by manpower agents,” said Acharya.

Likewise, the government is also planning to increase the paid-up capital of manpower agencies by more than three times. Currently, a manpower agency is required to have a minimum paid-up capital of Rs 30 million to receive operating licence. The government is planning to hike this minimum requirement to Rs 100 million through the amendment.

“We have realised that the market is flooded with small manpower companies due to low paid-up capital requirement,” Acharya said, explaining the reason behind the government’s initiative to increase the threshold.

Similarly, the government is planning to channelise the payment gateway for manpower agencies. After the rule is implemented, job-seekers would be required to make any payment to the manpower agency through banking channel. “This would help keep track of the actual amount paid by the workers and also help bring manpower agencies into the tax net,” Acharya informed.

Despite numerous attempts, the government has until now largely failed in curbing the incidences of manpower agencies overcharging migrant workers. The government had introduced the ‘free visa free ticket’ provision for job-seekers planning to go to Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Malaysia. However, the number of complaints lodged by migrant workers flying to these destinations — stating that they were made to pay much higher than the maximum of Rs 10,000 that manpower companies are allowed to charge job-seekers as service fee — continue to rise unabated.