The Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies (Nafea) has threatened to stop sending migrant workers for overseas jobs if the government fails to revise the free-visa-free-ticket policy.

The umbrella organisation of recruiting agencies, who had earlier protested for two months after the policy came into effect on July 6, have given a February 12 ultimatum to take concrete decision on revising the rule.

 

“We waited too long hoping that there would be some revision in the policy, ” said Nafea official Kumud Khanal.

 

The policy was introduced in an effort to prevent economic exploitation of workers in the name of recruitment fees. But Nafea officials claim there has been decline in job demand from seven major labour destinations in Gulf and Malaysia since introduction of new rule. Government’s data, however, show that there has been significant rise in job demands from all countries except Malaysia.

 

According to the new rule, workers going to Malaysia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait will have to pay just for health check-ups, orientation training and their welfare fund. They may have to pay a maximum of Rs 10,000 as service charge if the employer is not providing the service charge to the recruiting agency.