The government has launched a mission to provide information related to foreign jobs in the villages too. The Ministry of Labour and Employment started the campaign three months back, on the suggestion of a committee led by Dr Ganesh Gurung.

However, experts are not enthusiastic about the campaign.

The ministry has been mobilising local government agencies like village development committees (VDCs) and municipalities, and non-governmental organisations to disseminate information in villages, according to the ministry that has been distributing booklets and leaflets to foreign job aspirants through officials at the local bodies and social mobilisers of non-government organisations.

“We have already reached 20,000 villages in 20 districts,” said an officer at the ministry. “It will be expanded to all the village development committees in the current fiscal year.”

According to him, the move will reduce fraud and human trafficking that have been taking place under the guise of foreign employment. People will be aware which will consequently help reduce fraud and other human trafficking cases.

However, experts claim that the information flow has not been able to do away with the false promises that agents spread across the country make. “Agents are locals and know the problems of the foreign job aspirants,” said a rights to information campaigner Taranath Dahal. “Only information will not change their behaviour,” he said, adding that the government can change the situation if it addresses local social, economic and cultural factors that influence people and force them to migrate.

“One-way communication does not work. There should be peer educators and interpersonal communication.”

But migrant expert Dr Ganesh Gurung is optimistic. “Though the campaign will not abolish fraud and human trafficking, it can create awareness in the community,” he said, adding that the campaign will build a baseline for future interventions.

According to him, the campaign needs gradual revision according to the aspirations of the people. “We have to explore what information people want and which method will be effective for future interventions through the campaign,” he said, suggesting the government to build a roster of communication and migration experts to analyse the effectiveness of the campaign.

“We needed to build an effective information mechanism targeting fraud and human traffickers.”

Fraud and human trafficking are deep rooted in the foreign employment sector.

About 1‚426 fraud cases related to migrants — 602 institutional and 824 individual — were filed with claims of around Rs 771.21 million at the Department of Foreign Employment in first eight months of the current fiscal year.

 Published on: 11 April 2013 | The Himalayan Times