Rishi Adhikari

To stop unscrupulous manpower companies, Nepal should form new body to handle all migration-related activity

It is ironic, but a compulsion, for Nepal to send its youth in the prime of their lives to other countries for employment instead of using them for the nation’s development. Their earnings however are not a reliable source of income, as small changes in the receiving country can stop the flow of people and subsequently, the remittance they bring, pushing the country towards economic chaos and failure. We eulogise the migrant workers for bringing remittances, without which, the country probably would come to its knees. The government, realising the malpractices with migration, recently instituted a high-level committee on migrant workers. The committee came up with 30 recommendations of which a majority have been taken up by the government and implemented. As the wœs of migrant workers continue, are we matching our words with action?

Major Issues

There are quite a few manpower companies (MPCs) who cheat the poor workers knowingly and do not come forward in solving the problems. Some major anomalies in migration include signing of two contracts while only presenting one to the government; giving worker different and harder work than agreed in the contract; no job at arrival for them and keeping workers in awful conditions with meager food and without salary, often leading to suicides; fake visas and passports. After being blacklisted once, these companies register new ones and continue cheating people. The MPCs hide when contacted by the embassies or the victims. Some workers have no resources to buy return tickets and become mentally disturbed. Some on fake visa/passports get arrested at the airport itself. Sometimes the MPCs send the workers without the consent of the Employer Company (EC), forcing them to be illegals. Even after abolition of levy by the Malaysian government for example, few ECs especially dealing with security, cleaning and those in the hinterlands have still been deducting the levy. There are cases of delayed compensation payment to victims. The insurance dœs not cover off hour accidents and even when compensated, the amount is very small. The working and living conditions sometimes are risky. Some workers are not treated well by the ECs when they are sick or in great need of support. Thus, the workers feel out-rightly cheated. However, problems are also invited by the workers themselves as they often run away from the original company and thus become illegal and vulnerable to exploitation.

Ameliorating the Suffering

The labour laws, rules and regulations need to be modified to be more suitable towards safeguarding the rights of the labourers, and strictly implemented. The wrong-dœrs need to be identified and punished harshly and no new MPCs should be registered with any of these persons in the new board. Attestations of demand documents should be done only by the embassies to allow only good ECs and for the safety of the workers. Resources at the embassy need to be increased for better support in awareness- raising, hiring lawyers, engaging extra hands, visiting jails, detention depots, ECs; rescuing and sending home the needy etc. Similarly, proper pre-departure training and genuine health checkups must be ensured. There has to be massive awareness campaigns on foreign employment. Embassy employees should internalise their tasks and commit to them. There should be enough staff at the embassies—Labor Attaches and Ambassadors are key. Contact points/consular office should be established at various cities as required.

Sustainable Measures

 The above steps are cosmetic for the short run. The government must invest in employment creation so that the youth entering the labour market and the returnees get gainful employment. Our friendly countries, bilateral/ multilateral donors, and the Nonresident Nepalese should be encouraged to invest in Nepal in creating employment. Our embassies should focus on bringing investment towards mobilisation of our natural resources such as hydropower, mountains, birth place of Lord Buddha and other sites, all aimed at creating employment.

Out of Box System

 At this juncture it is worth asking ourselves whether we are managing or mismanaging the migration business. Are we sensitive and empathetic enough and corresponding amply to the services these herœs and heroines are doing to the country? Amidst this scenario wherein the workers are suffering for no fault of their own, there seems to be a need to think out of the box and go beyond the Migrant Labor Act 2064. Let me propose that the Department of Foreign Employment (DOFE) itself or a new semiautonomous body be set up, instituted, tasked and empowered to look for potential labour markets, conduct the advertising, recruiting, orienting and training processes, take health tests, cover insurance, workers’ visa, travel, placement and monitoring. All these tasks must be done solely by this organisation, except in bringing aspirant workers to this organisation, which can be done by the MPCs. This way it is expected that the role of unscrupulous MPCs and employer companies and their rogue agents will be eliminated. For the new set-up, there is need to have offices (Labour/Skill Development Centers/Employment Information Centers or CDO) etc. in all the 75 districts to advertise and disseminate pertinent information on labour issues and collect applications from potential migrant workers. Each office at the district will have two to three staff with computers and a link to DOFE or the new central office computer. The application is sent electronically to DOFE or new office which receives EC demands, processed solely by embassies and then passed on to receiving countries. This system supports the workers in close coordination with the Nepali embassies abroad, Migrant Workers Promotion Board and the employers, to solve any issues of concern with the workers including death and accidents. It also manages to welcome the returning workers as herœs/heroines. This new set-up will also plan for productive use of the remittances and orient the returnees. 

Published on: 19 August 2012 | The Kathmandu Post