After two-and-a-half years of ban, the government is preparing to allow foreign employment agencies to send female workers to Israel. The government is currently in final stages of short listing agencies that will be allowed to send female Nepali caregivers to Israel apart from fixing the maximum fee to be charged from them.

Israel—a lucrative labour destination for Nepali women—had stopped hiring Nepali workers in April 2009 citing overcharging by Nepali employment agencies and lack of work skills and language proficiency of Nepali workers. It had been reported that some agencies charged up to Rs 800,000 per person.

The government is preparing a work plan whereby employment agencies interested to send workers to Israel must be enlisted at the Department of Foreign Employment. The listed agencies will not be allowed to charge fee above the maximum amount set by the Ministry of Labour of Transport Management. The new work plan also makes it mandatory for job aspirants to receive caregiver training from government certified institutions and undergo at least 120 hours of Hebrew language training.

“A total of 245 foreign employment agencies have applied to supply workers to Israel,” said Kashi Raj Dahal, director at the department, adding eligible agencies will be shortlisted within a week.

According to the work plan, agencies demanding the enlistment must have at least three years of experience in the foreign employment sector and they should not have previously been convicted of fraud. The department had provided 15 days time to interested foreign employment agencies to apply for the enlistment. The dateline expired on Sunday.

The ministry has also expedited work on fixing the maximum fee to be charged by the agencies from prospective workers. According to a ministry official, they will fix the fee within the next two weeks after consultation with stakeholders concerned. “Once the government fixes the maximum charge, aspirants will pay the fee only through banking channels to the concerned agencies’ account to make financial transactions transparent,” the official said.

Currently, over 7,000 Nepali workers are working in Israel. According to a report of Foreign Nepali Worker Rescue Centre released last month, 90 percent of Nepali workers in Israel are women. The Israeli government had agreed in August to issue visas for Nepali nationals willing to work there, however Nepal has not started to send workers due to preparatory affairs based on new work plan.

Published on: 1 November 2011 | The Kathmandu Post