Binod Ghimire

Every year, around half a million youths leave Nepal in search of greener pastures abroad. And along with the rise in the number of these outbound youths, various factors, including the misuse of pre-departure orientation certificates, deplorable conditions of authorised centres and the rising trend among workers to adopt shortcuts, have left a large section of the Nepali migrant workers vulnerable to adversities in overseas employment.

Around five years ago, the government had decided to start a two-day mandatory pre-departure course for prospective migrant workers with a view to providing them with all the information and instructions they would need once they land in foreign countries. The orientation programme is aimed at equipping the youths with all the information to ease their transition to their destination countries. However, the programme has not fared well as one single syllabus is used for all workers, irrespective of their jobs and the country they head for.

“The course is designed with the mindset that every individual going overseas is a blue-collar worker,” said Kuber Nepal, who will be flying to the Gulf to work in the aviation sector. “It is a wastage of time and money for people like me.”

Moreover, a majority of the orientation centres do not follow the guidelines set by the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE). It was found during a recent surprise check carried out by the Department in various authorised centres that half of them did not follow the guidelines. The government has approved 88 such orientation centres and is planning to add 12 more within a month.

In addition, many prospective migrants do not join the classes as they are not aware of the importance of the orientation. As all the orientation centres are in the Capital, most aspiring migrant workers come from poor families in districts across the country and cannot afford to stay in Kathmandu for long. As such, they rely on middlemen who provide them with the orientation certificates without taking the classes.

In lack of proper monitoring by the DoFE, manpower companies and orientation centre have been selling the certificates for Rs 700 to Rs 1,000, sources say.

Purna Bahadur Malla, chief of the Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Orientation Agencies, however, accused the Department and manpower companies of promoting irregularities and instead of laying the blame on the association.

DoFE officials say they are trying their best to make the process transparent and more effective. “It has been difficult for us to carry out adequate monitoring and control the malpractice due to the increasing number of orientation centres,” said Binod KC, Director General at the DoFE. 

A report prepared by the DoFE shows that over 450,000 youth flew to the Gulf and the Middle East last fiscal year.

Bandita Sijapati, a researcher associated with the Centre for the Study of Labour and Mobility, feels a large section of workers and manpower companies are not aware of the benefits of pre-departure counseling. She said various other factors, including higher dependency of workers on manpower companies and brokers, widespread misuse of the certificates, the irrational and vague curriculum used by the orientation centres, hectic schedule of workers and the Capital-centric institutes, have rendered the current orientation programme ineffective.

“Pre-departure counseling must be more specific and should cater to the actual needs of the workers. It is illogical to provide the same course to every worker, irrespective of the workers’ background and the nature of the job, gender and the destination country. Moreover, workers should be able to get proper information during the decision-making phase at the grassroots level,” said Sijapati.

Experts say there should be an additional mechanism in Nepali missions abroad to monitor the living condition of migrant workers there.

According to KC, as 80 per cent of the migrant workers are labourers, the orientation syllabus basically targets them. “However, we are working to hold country- and work-specific orientation classes,” he claimed.

Orientation aside, foreign employment experts say there is also an urgent need to revise several other provisions, including training, health check-ups and the overall process associated with overseas employment to promote safe migration.

Published on: 13 August 2013 | The Kathmandu Post