Kathmandu, April 4

Foreign employment agencies have started to submit new applications for pre-approval of workers’ demand at Department of Foreign Employment.

Bal Bahadur Tamang, former president of Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies (NAFEA), confirmed that manpower agencies have started submitting pre-approval of workers’ demand. This means manpower firms have rolled back their earlier decision and started full-fledged operation, even as the government has not made any decision in their favour.

Foreign employment agencies had suspended their operations for around a month as a protest against the police raid on manpower firms. They had resumed ‘partial’ operation from Thursday, after the government invited them for talks.

When resuming their operation, the manpower agencies had said that they would suspend the pre-approval process till the government addresses their demands that also include reviewing service fees that the agencies get to charge for sending workers to six Gulf countries and Malaysia.

NAFEA — the umbrella association of manpower agencies in the country — had said on Thursday that manpower firms would resume partial operation to serve just those job-seekers who have already obtained their visa till end of March and only require final approval from government.

Even though representatives of the manpower companies and the officials of Ministry of Labour and Employment (MoLE) have held three rounds of discussion since Thursday, no decision has been taken regarding review in the service charge.

The earlier government had made it mandatory for the hiring companies in six Gulf countries — Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman — and Malaysia to bear the cost of visa and ticket to employ labours from Nepal. In doing so, it had also capped the amount that manpower agencies can charge outbound workers leaving for the aforementioned destinations as service fees at maximum of Rs 10,000 each.

The discussion between the manpower agencies and the MoLE is scheduled to continue tomorrow as well.

The manpower firms have been demanding that the government revert earlier decision and have been lobbying for similar provision (regarding service fees) as has been enforced by other labour sending countries of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

India, for instance, allows manpower agencies to charge up to INR 20,000 or salary of 45 days — whichever is less — as service fees from foreign job-seekers.