KATHMANDU: Outsourcing agencies have threatened to protest against Israel if tel Aviv’s ban on recruiting Nepali migrant labours is not lifted.

“We will protest against Israel,” said Prakash Karki, acting chairperson of International Employment Entrepreneur Association (IEEA), the umbrella organization of outsourcing agencies sending Nepali blue-collar jobseekers abroad.

Israel banned Nepali workers since April 24 after a study commissioned by the Ministry of Interior found over 1,000 Nepalis living there illegally.

The study held two major factors — high service fee of outsourcing agencies and lack of skill in labourers — responsible for the growing number of illegal Nepali migrant workers.

But Nepali outsourcing agencies don’t accept the report. “Nepal is not a country taking exorbitant service fee,” said Karki in a press conference organized here today, “Outsourcing agencies in India, Sri Lanka and other countries are also taking more than the prescribed rate. If Israel wants to reduce the service fee they have to control outsourcing agencies based on land, he added.

Nepali outsourcing agencies have been taking Rs 4-6 lakh per head from workers bound to Israel.

The Department of Foreign Employment has set Rs 2.4 lakh as the service fee. “The rate goes high because we have to pay $3-4,000 to Israeli outsourcing agencies for demand,” said Sujit Shrestha, an outsourcing agency owner.