After a month-long protest against the police raid in some manpower firms, the Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies held talks with the Ministry of Labour and Employment to sort out the disputes. Manpower firms had suspended operations as a protest against the police raid and only resumed operations after the MoLE called them for talks on March 31. However, the talks between MoLE and NAFEA are yet to come to any concrete conclusion. Deepak Bohara, Minister for Labour and Employment spoke with Pushpa Raj Acharya of The Himalayan Times on what his ministry is doing to settle the disputes and on reforms in the foreign employment sector.

What is the view of the Ministry of Labour and Employment (MoLE) regarding the protest launched by manpower firms against the police raid that was conducted on charges of manpower firms swindling money from foreign job aspirants?

We have to know about the issue in detail. When the earlier government had enforced ‘free visa, free ticket’ provision last year, manpower firms had launched protest for a month against the government’s move then too. Back then too there was an agreement between the government and manpower firms after the government convinced them that it would consider the issues raised by manpower firms after analysing the impact of the ‘free visa, free ticket’ provision after a few months of its implementation. In the meantime, the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) and the police had made the monitoring strict. The police raided some manpower firms on charges that they were swindling money from foreign job aspirants, which is the cause of the recent protest. I asked foreign employment agencies to withdraw the protest and sit for talks. Now, we are looking at the best possible ways for a long-term solution of such problems and seeking cooperation from manpower agencies to reform the sector.

You have stated that the government will stick with the ‘free visa, free ticket’ provision. How will MoLE be able to convince manpower firms for effective implementation of the provision?

The government will not reverse the ‘free visa, free ticket’ provision and we have already made our stance clear. We have been holding discussions with manpower firms regarding the effective implementation of this provision. During our recent talks, manpower firms had raised three major issues that were related to taxation, service fees and the police raid on manpower firms. To sort out the issues related to taxation and police raid, we also invited authorities from Inland Revenue Department (IRD) and Ministry of Home Affairs, during the talks. There were issues related to book-keeping and authorities from IRD made it clear that the agencies need to maintain book-keeping of their transactions whether the amount was big or small. Similarly, they had grievances with the Ministry of Home Affairs due to the police raid. Regarding the service fee, we have not yet decided on how to move forward. Manpower firms have been seeking a moderate hike in service fee for the effective implementation of ‘free visa, free ticket’ provision. We have been analysing the impact of ‘free visa, free ticket’ on migrant workers looking for employment opportunities in seven countries — Malaysia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait. We also came to know that the service fee of Rs 10,000 for the aforesaid destinations fixed by the government had not been implemented properly and foreign job aspirants were also hesitant to divulge the amount they were being charged. The desk established by DoFE at Tribhuvan International Airport has been seeking information from all foreign job seekers going to aforementioned seven destinations, but the migrant workers have all been saying that were charged only Rs 10,000 as service fee by manpower firms. The reason behind this is that the workers were in a hurry to go abroad and assumed that making complaints could create problems in their foreign jobs. Manpower firms also have not been abiding by the rules related to proper orientation for job seekers before sending them to labour destinations. Apart from that there are various malpractices in foreign employment sector, like a foreign job seeker does not get the said job and salary, among others. We want manpower firms not to charge more than the amount fixed by the government and we also hope that foreign job seekers will lodge complaints against those who try to cheat them. We might consider a moderate revision in service fee if the manpower firms cooperate with the government to reform the foreign employment sector in a bid to safeguard foreign job seekers.

How can you ensure that manpower firms will not charge more from foreign job seekers even after the hike in service fee?

We have been seeking commitment from foreign employment agencies to deliver proper job orientation and ensure that the workers get the job and salary as mentioned in their contracts. If the government does consider revising service fee, the foreign employment agencies must also make a commitment to abide by all the rules. But this does not mean that we are going to altogether stop our monitoring mechanism to control malpractices. The government can be flexible to some extent to create a ground in which foreign employment agencies can work satisfactorily. We want to discourage manpower firms who have been involved in malpractices. We are also looking at the practices followed by other labour sending countries like India and Sri Lanka, among others. Similarly, we are going to interact with the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Nepal Chamber of Commerce and other private sector organisations, remittance companies, and representatives of trade unions, among others regarding this issue on Wednesday. There will be discussions on a wide range of issues regarding what the foreign employment agencies need to do and how the government can facilitate them. As the remittance sent by Nepalis working abroad has a huge contribution in the country’s economy, we have to take a holistic approach to reform the sector rather than dealing with issues on a piecemeal basis. MoLE has also been preparing to review the existing Foreign Employment Act and Rules to make it more contextual. The country’s economy will get a boost from two sectors — the first is harnessing hydropower resources and second is development of human resources by conducting skill development and vocational trainings. So, the revised law will focus on skill development of human resources as well. Currently, around four million Nepalis are working abroad and a majority of them are unskilled (raw labour). If we are able to train them before sending them abroad for work, inflow of remittance would obviously be higher than what we are receiving at present. Currently, the government has been allocating over Rs 16 billion annually for skill development and other trainings through 19 agencies, and I have proposed to consolidate all the trainings under MoLE for better output. We have spoken to the Ministry of Finance to create an umbrella agency consolidating all the skill development and other trainings from various ministries in next fiscal’s budget. We have been preparing to send an expert team to Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and United Arab Emirates, to study the curriculum of the institutes that impart skill development trainings there. We will also seek accreditation for our training and skill development centres in Nepal.

Previously, foreign employment agencies used to show an amount that was lower than Rs 10,000 as service fee in their receipts even when they were allowed to charge Rs 80,000 from a job seeker looking for employment in Malaysia and Rs 70,000 for Gulf countries. They used to say that the charges allowed then were used for airfare, visas, visa processing and other service charges. Now what is the logic behind revising service fee as it is already Rs 10,000 for the seven major labour destinations?

Till now there has not been any decision regarding service fee revision and it is just a demand put forward by manpower agencies. If the government decides to consider their demand then we too will expect reforms from them. Manpower firms accepted the ‘free visa, free ticket’ provision and service fee of Rs 10,000 under the government’s pressure. But there were many drawbacks because the government had implemented it forcibly. There was no account of the money swindled by foreign employment agencies from foreign job seekers and hence we lost out on tax revenue. Foreign job seekers were also affected as manpower firms put emotional pressure on foreign job seekers so that they would not be exposed. Hence, we are seriously looking into the issue of service fee so that it will be beneficial for both manpower agencies and foreign job seekers. If we find manpower firms breaching agreements made with the government we will come down heavily on them. In a nutshell, if they make a commitment we can offer manpower firms the opportunity to correct themselves.

Recently, Malaysia had stopped hiring Nepali workers. Is the government exploring other destinations for Nepali labour?

MoLE has been doing all that it can to ensure the safety and security of Nepalis employed abroad. In this regard, we are going to sign labour agreement with Saudi Arabia in the first week of May. Government-to-government agreements with various other countries have also been planned. We have also tried to explore new destinations. We have requested Japan to hire Nepali workers under the same model that we have been sending workers to South Korea. Similarly, we will hold talks with Mauritius and Lebanon to send Nepali labour there.  Apart from that, we are analysing job opportunities in our own country as well. We will be able to generate around one million jobs in the near future in the readymade garment sector and for reconstruction activities. We have proposed to the National Reconstruction Authority to provide onsite job training in various sites of reconstruction projects to prepare human resources for reconstruction. We have some projects in the pipeline to provide training to foreign job seekers that will be strictly for passport holders only.