Secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Employment ( MoLE ) Suresh Man Shrestha on Wednesday said that the age ban on domestic help going to the Gulf countries have failed to bring desired change as many women continue to go abroad through Indian routes by faking their age. 

The government on August 2012 had imposed an age restriction on women below 30 years to go as a domestic help to the Gulf countries. Shrestha said his ministry is also considering the Saudi’s proposal to sign labour agreement for domestic help. “

“We recommended the government to keep 25 as the minimum age limit for women going for household job to the Gulf, but the Cabinet made it 30 years. Despite good intentions, the decision failed to produce desired result due to loophole”,” said Shrestha, addressing a consultation meeting held jointly by the government and the International Organization for Migration (IOM). 

Shrestha said that there should be a joint effort to minimise the recruitment cost for aspirant migrants as many countries like Sri Lanka and Philippines are sending workers on low cost. 

Addressing the interaction programme, various stakeholders said that Nepali migrant workers are facing exploitation and abuses due to obscure recruitment process. 

“Unethical recruitment has negative consequences for all stakeholders in international recruitment, from Nepali migrant workers and their employers to the ethical recruiters who are unfairly disadvantag”d,” said Maurizio Busatti, the chief of mission at IOM Nepal.  

Representatives of recruiting agencies mostly blamed legal loopholes, poor labour laws of the receiving nations, overtly agent based recruitment system and corruption for rise in fraud and anomalies. 

Aasha Lama, operator of a recruiting agency, suggested the government  and other stakeholders to focus on empowerment of the migrant themselves as other approaches have failed to produce a desired outcome. 

 Published on: 13 February 2014 | The Kathmandu Post