The Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies (NAFEA) is set to establish a welfare fund for workers within the next month. The fund will be raised from overseas employment agencies on the basis of the number of workers they send abroad.

 

Envisioned as an approach to burnish its ‘tainted’ image and honour the contribution made by migrant workers, the association aims to use the fund for the common good of workers. The fund will be primarily used in the core area of workers’ welfare such as compensating the dead, injured and those losing jobs. 

 

The fund will also be used as financial assistance to the families of the deceased, scholarships to their children and in constructing schools. The association hopes to establish training centres for workers. At times of critical need, the fund will be lent to employment agencies free of interest.

 

NAFEA representatives said that the fund will be similar to the Migrant Workers’ Welfare Fund managed by the Foreign Employment Promotion Board (FEPB). “But we hope to use this fund more extensively. It will be a milestone in our relationship with workers and society,” said NAFEA Chairman Bal Bahadur Tamang. “We are discussing the amount that agencies will need to contribute to the fund,” he said.

 

A committee led by NAFEA Secretary Kumud Khanal has been formed to do the homework. As per the plan, an agency may contribute Rs 200 to Rs 1,000 per worker.

 

However, experts doubt the fund will really help workers. “We should praise the NAFEA if it had set up the fund on its own but collecting money from aspiring workers by increasing the service cost is unfortunate,” said foreign employment expert Ganesh Gurung. He observed that every new member in the association comes up with a novel idea and but never delivers on it.

 

Notwithstanding its earlier commitment to honour migrant workers by establishing a welfare fund, the government too has been collecting levies from the workers. Currently, there is Rs 1.35 billion in the migrant workers’ fund but few works have been undertaken, despite collecting Rs 1,000 from each worker. 

 

The Department of Foreign Employment informed that recruitment agencies sent a total of 264,786 migrant workers last fiscal year.