Even after a month of the catastrophic earthquake of April 25 not a single migrant worker has sought reimbursement of airfare at the Foreign Employment Promotion Board (FEPB).

The government had announced that it would bear the two-way travel cost of migrant workers who lost their family members in the earthquake. The FEPB, under the Ministry of Labor and Employment (MoLE), had stated that it would compensate the airfares of such migrant workers after they submit the required documents.

Executive Director at FEPB Raghu Raj Kafle said not a single application seeking reimbursement of travel fair have been filed at the FEPB so far.

"We have learnt through our embassies in destination countries, mainly Malaysia, South Korea and the Gulf countries that most of the companies and employers bore the travel fair of Nepali workers who flew to Nepal after the devastating earthquake," said Kafle.

He informed that some companies even provided compensation and relief packages to their Nepali employee leaving for Nepal, adding, "If migrant workers come to us with all documents within the end of this month, we will reimburse their two-way travel fare."

Department of Immigration (DoI) at the Tribhuwan International Airport (TIA) recorded a total number of around 66,930 Nepalis returning from various countries. However, the data is not enough to suggest that all the returnees from the destination countries are migrant workers.

Immigration Chief at TIA Meg Nath Kafle informed that a large number of Nepalis have returned home after the devastating earthquake.

"Even though we have recorded a large number of Nepalis coming to Nepal, we don't an advanced system to categorize where they come from," said he.

Published on: 2 June 2015 | Republica