The Department of Foreign Employment selected them after evaluating their strengths. Two weeks ago, when the department called for applications, a total of 245 recruiting agencies had applied for the license to send Nepali workers to Israel. Of which, 39 did not to meet the governmentset criteria during the evaluation. “The agencies are evaluated and shortlisted on the basis of their last three years’ performance,” said Kashi Raj Dahal, director of the department, adding that they would complete distributing certificates to the selected agencies within next two weeks. “Then, they can start accepting demands from Israel,” said Dahal.

 

The names of the authorised agencies will be forwarded to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Nepali Embassy in Israel. Israel had stopped hiring Nepali workers since April 2009, citing of lack of proper work skills and language proficiency of Nepali workers and arbitrary charge being taken by manpower agencies from aspirant workers in the name of promotion and service fees. At that time, Nepali agencies were reportedly charging as high as Rs 800,000 per person. Based on the government’s work plan, the Ministry of Labour and Transport Management will soon to fix the maximum amount to be charged by agencies from Israel job aspirants. Recently, a meeting held in this regard had decided to set the maximum fee at Rs 227,000 ($2,925) per aspirant. However, the amount is yet to be finalised by newly appointed Minister for Labour and Transport Management Sarita Giri.