The government has not been able to recover Rs 18.06 million provided to three manpower agencies to rescue Nepali migrant workers from war-torn Libya last year. The money was made available to SOS Manpower Service, Paradise International and Capital International Manpower from the Foreign Employment Welfare Fund to bring back workers sent by them. According to the Foreign Employment Promotion Board (FEPB), SOS received Rs 15.29 million after it said that it lacked resources to pull out the workers sent through South Korean Won Construction Company. Paradise and Capital received Rs 1.65 million and Rs 1.11 million respectively. The employment agencies were given the money based on the understanding that they would pay it back after they were reimbursed by the hiring companies in Libya. The FEPB said SOS made a partial repayment of Rs 2 million last week. Capital said it had not received any money from the company in Libya while Paradise has written to the FEPB stating that it dœs not have to pay it back. “We have information that the money the three companies spent on rescuing the workers has been returned to them,” said an FEPB official. The official added that they had written to the manpower firms repeatedly to return the money but they have not done so. More than 1,800 Nepali workers were repatriated from Libya. Of them, 562 were rescued by SOS, 63 by Paradise and 24 by Capital using the money from the fund for their airfare. “We received some money for the air tickets and the salaries of the workers and we have repaid Rs 2 million out of it to the FEPB,” said Som Lal Bataju of SOS. “It is a lot of money, so we will be paying back the government in instalments as we are compensated by the employing company.” “Talks are on to collect the money from the three agencies,” said FEPB acting executive director Girija Sharma, refusing to comment further on the issue. Meanwhile, Bal Bahadur Tamang, president of the Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies, said that the three agencies must pay back the amount as per the government’s decision. “The government should check through the Nepali embassies concerned if these three agencies have been reimbursed for the airfare by the hiring companies,” he said. “Our association will also write to the government to take action against the agencies if they do not repay the money even after being compensated by the employing companies.” The employment agencies were given the money based on the understanding that they would pay it back after they were reimbursed by the hiring companies in Libya

Published on: 30 August  2012 | The Kathmandu Post