Agents of various insurance companies, which provide insurance for aspirant migrant workers, now would no longer be able to receive commission from the sales of their insurance policies.

 

The decision was taken by the Foreign Employment Promotion Board (FEPB), under the Ministry of Labor and Employment (MoLE), after receiving numerous complaints about exploitation by such insurance agents.

The FEPB said that the role of insurance agents is minimal and took such a decision to benefit the migrant workers and have requested the Insurance Board to revise the existing policy where agents can take 25 percent commission from migrant workers.

 

The new decision of the FEPB comes right after it was decided to implement the increment in insurance fees of migrant workers by 65 percent. The families of the deceased migrant workers will receive the increment insurance money from April 13.

 

According to Raghu Raj Kafle, executive director of FEPB, they have already written to the Insurance Board to amend the insurance policy to benefit the migrant workers. He also added that there would be 65 percent increment in insurance fees of migrant workers effective from April 13.

 

"In case of death of migrant workers, the compensation to be provided by insurance companies would now be doubled, amounting to about Rs 1.4 million," added Kafle.

 

The numbers of deaths of migrant workers are consistently increasing of late. As many as 1,200 migrant workers out of 512,000 lost their lives in foreign countries in course of employment in the last fiscal year, according to a record at the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE). The record at FEPB even suggests that three migrant workers lose their lives in an average per day.

 

Likewise, the FEPB has also proposed the MoLE to revise the ceiling of providing compensation from Rs 300,000 to Rs 500,000 to the families of deceased migrant workers. The workers deposit Rs 1,000 at the welfare board of the FEPB before leaving the country.