THE months-long monitoring launched by the Department of Labour (DoL) to identify foreign workers working in the country without a work permit hasn’t yield any results, thanks to the indifference of the concerned authorities.

The monitoring has not been as effective as planned due to unenthusiastic responses from the Department of Immigration (DoI), Ministry of Labour and Transport Management (MoLTM) and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA). DoL officials have blamed the DoI, MoLTM and MoFA for not cooperating with the DoI in its vigorous step to find out foreign workers violating labour laws. Man Bahadur BK, director general of the DoI, said that in a bid to accelerate the monitoring and introduce strictness in labour policy in the country, the department had submitted a proposal to the MoLTM asking it not to issue any non-tourist visa to foreign workers until they receive a work permit from the department.

“As it has been difficult to catch foreign workers violating labour laws, we had requested the concerned authorities not to issue working visas without a permit through the MoLTM,” said BK. He added that until the DoI takes the work permit as a requirement to issue non-tourist visas, foreign workers will continue to breach the rules. “So, we had asked the concerned authorities to change its procedural format while issuing working visas,” added BK. The department had also asked the MoLTM to request the MoFA to provide a list of diplomatic staff. “As per current labour laws, diplomatic staff don’t need to have a work permit to work in Nepal. But as we are not informed about the number of such staff and also which missions they belong to, our monitoring is taking more time and resources,” said Bhim Prasad Bhattarai, section officer at the department. He added that the department had also approached the MoLTM to provide it a budget of Rs 1.8 million. “Sadly, not even a single request made by the department has been fulfilled,” said BK, “The ministry has not even informed us about the activities that have been conducted as per our proposal.” In order to check if all the foreign workers have received work permits and to bring them to book if they haven’t, the DoL had begun its monitoring around three months ago.

The department had also aimed to develop an extensive record of foreign workers in Nepal. To effectively launch the monitoring in different sectors including hydro power, multinational companies, banks and finance companies, NGOs/INGOs and other organizations, the department has formed five different committees. According to a DoI source, as many as 50,000 foreigners are working in Nepal, out of whom only around 7,000 have obtained a labour permit. Officials said a larger number of foreigners working in diplomatic missions, NGOs/INGOs and top business firms have not obtained a labour permit in violation of the law. “Despite our readiness to begin the monitoring task effectively, we haven’t been supported by the higher level authorities. Neither are the concerned agencies ready to provide us adequate funds nor are they making efforts for procedural and policy related changes,” said a DoL official.

MoLTM officials, however, said that the ministry had begun the process of helping the department in its monitoring. Nabin Pokharel, under secretary at the MoLTM, said that the ministry had communicated with the concerned authorities including the MoFA and the DoI and that they had pledged to work as per the request. “The ministry, however, hasn’t provided the budget as demanded by the department as it has around Rs 200,000 to conduct the monitoring,” said Pokharel, “Once the amount is spent, the ministry will promptly release additional funds.”

Neither are the concerned agencies ready to provide us adequate funds nor are they making efforts for procedural and policy related changes

Published on: 9 January 2012 | The Kathmandu Post