Roshan Sedhai

The government failure to endorse four major directives aimed at regulating the foreign employment sector has put the migrant workers on the receiving end.

The Ministry of Labour and Employment (MoLE) is dragging its heels on endorsing the drafts concerning the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), Agency Agreement, Labour Agreement and a new guideline on license.

As a result of which, the migrant workers have been forced to face exploitation at various levels. The Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) had forwarded those drafts to the ministry a year ago in a bid to control anomalies surrounding the foreign employment industry.

SOP intends to enforce an established procedure to provide workers with better and effective services.

The procedure would cover all stakeholders, including the DoFE, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), Nepal’s missions in the destination countries, the Department of Immigration (DoI), the Labour Desk at the Tribhuvan International Airport and recruiting agencies.

It also aims to provide a legal ground for better and effective coordination among stakeholders and reduce workers’ obligation to visit several offices to do a single work.

Due to the involvement of various ministries in foreign employment, most workers have to wait for many days for a single procedure to be completed. There are complaints from aspiring migrant workers that they are exploited by government officials at the DoFE and the DoI as well as the employment companies and agents.

Ambiguous and conflicting regulations have resulted in overlapping authority of diverse stakeholders and burdened workers with superfluous paperwork.

An agency agreement is a legal contract between the outsourcing agents of two countries that aims to maintain a fiduciary relationship.

The provision aims at winning the commitment of the recruitment agencies to the safety and security of workers. It will allow a legal ground for the manpower companies inside and outside Nepal to recruit workers, increasing the overall accountability of the agencies.

There is an urgent need to sign a new and renew the old labour pact with countries like Saudi Arabia and Malaysia. The delay to start new manpower license issuance procedure has created a monopoly of the existing manpower companies

“Similarly, many people have sold or handed their licences in contract as there is no provision of revising the previous status. There is a fear of misuse by human smugglers and ill-minded people,” said Bal Bahadur Tamang, chairman of Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies (NAFEA).

Government officials said they are doing their best to endorse the drafts soon. Buddhi Bahadur Khadka, MoLE spokesperson, said the involvement of multi-stakeholders has delayed the overall process.

“These are many interconnected issues that need a proper consultation with other bodies. There is no point in questioning the intensity of the ministry. We have deeply felt the need of these agreements,” said Khadka. “SOP will come in to effect every soon. We are also working on the agency agreement and the labour agreement but it will take a little more time.”

Manpower representatives have expressed hope that new DoFE Director General Binod KC may push the ministry to bring the directive into effect.

Published on: 22 May 2013 | The Kathmandu Post