In an attempt to ease the hardships faced by millions of service seekers, the government is planning to decentralise the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE). The government has started preliminary work to extend the department’s services by establishing branch offices in five development regions. Due to the Kathmandu-centric services, migrant workers are compelled to come to the Capital even for minor tasks.

With the new offices, migrant workers will be provided services such as pre-work approval, final work approval, life insurance, and legal help and depositing to the migrant workers’ welfare fund. Officials said the location of the regional offices will be fixed after study on the basis of accessibility and socio-economic factors. Since the government has incorporated the plan to open regional offices in its budget for the fiscal year 2013/14, officials say, fieldwork will start soon.

“The budget has opened the door for carrying out the work. Fieldwork will begin after our proposal is approved by the Cabinet, the Finance Ministry and other stakeholders,” said Divas Acharya, DoFE spokesperson. Stakeholders say the regional offices will help prospective migrants get faster, cheaper and quality services.

Travel and accommodation expenditures have been an important factor in increasing the overall overseas employment cost for the Nepali rural population. Although reliable researches are hard to come by, it is said that costs of travel, food and accommodation double the overall costs for a prospective migrant in a remote area.

Their woes are aggravated by the department’s sluggish service delivery and petty bribery. The department blames the lack of human resources and equipment for the poor service. The Ministry of Labour and Employment has deputed only 97 staffers to the office that receives around 2,000 service seekers daily.

Acharya said the new office, with a deputation of new staffers, will lessen the work pressure on the department. This will open the way for the head office to concentrate more on policies and control the growing anomalies in the foreign employment industry. The private sector, mostly the Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies (NAFEA), has welcomed the decision.

Published on: 22 July 2013 | The Kathmandu Post