Acknowledging that many anomalies seen in the foreign employment sector could be avoided through effective implementation of pre-departure counseling, the government is working to keep special vigilance on classroom activities of orientation centres by installing webcam surveillance software.

 

The Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) has started a ‘preliminary’ process to bring all orientation centres under the surveillance system. DoFE officials say the orientation centres will also have to bear the expenses to make the process effective and participatory.

 

“Discussions are underway with other stakeholders, including the orientation centre and we are carrying out a feasibility study on the matter. All stakeholders are positive to share the cost burden with the government,” DoFE Spokesperson Divash Acharya said.

 

Besides lessening the government’s financial burden, officials claim sharing of the cost will also help implement regulations successfully by developing feeling of ownership among the orientation centres.

 

The provision of pre-departure counseling has largely failed to yield desired outcomes in absence of a proper inspection mechanism form the understaffed department and other governmental stakeholders. Even the DoFE officials admit that various irregularities, including unchecked distribution of orientation certificates, are rampant. Workers are obliged to take a two-day orientation from the authorised institutions to get final work approval from the department.

 

DoFE said they achieve the desired outcome only when they carry out the inspection. In a recent inspection jointly carried by the DoFE, the Ministry of Labour and Employment and the Foreign Employment Promotion Board (FEPB), the Post found appaling irregularities, including non-attendance of prospective migrant workers, unchecked distribution of certificate and assignment of untrained teachers.

 

Officials say the inspection process has become ineffective of late because of a huge increase in the number of orientation centres. The government has given accreditation to around 100 institutions presently, up from a few dozens a year ago. The number, according to Acharya, is likely to double within a few months. Ministry sources say the DoFE and the FEPB officials have been misusing the authority by giving accreditation to deplorable institutions. The Department issues license to the pre-counseling centres based on the recommendation of the FEPB.

 

Various governmental reports and researches have blamed ineffective pre-departure counseling for pushing the workers toward adversities of foreign employment. A report jointly prepared by the DoFE and the FEPB two years ago claims that several deaths, crimes and imprisonment of Nepali workers could have been avoided through effective orientation.

 

Official records show 643 Nepali workers died in the Gulf and Malaysia in the fiscal year 2011-12 while the number increased to 643 in 2012-13.

 

The representatives of orientation agencies, however, claim that the fundamental problem lies in the department and manpower agencies that have been promoting irregularities. A few months ago, Purna Bahadur Malla, chief of the Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Orientation Agencies, had told the Post that nothing would change unless the manpower companies and the DoFE officials showed honesty toward the workers’ welfare.