NEPAL GOVT TO RELAX RULES FOR OBTAINING WORK CONTRACTS VERIFIED FROM COUNTRY MISSIONS IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES DUE TO PRESSURE FROM THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FOREIGN EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES IN THE COUNTRY KATHMANDU, OCT 02 - Bowing to pressure from the Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies (NAFEA), the government plans to endorse a controversial decision relaxing the requirements to obtain a work approval. As per the draft provision which the Ministry of Labour and Employment (MoLE) has sent to the Cabinet, the need to have work contracts verified by the Nepali mission in the respective labour destination will be cancelled. Similarly, work approvals will be given even if there are discrepancies in the details about the sponsor and the profession. Presently, most of the workers going to the Gulf countries do so using work contract letters containing false information about the company, sponsor and profession. Manpower companies and agents have been illegally sending workers using fake contracts with the involvement of the airport setting, a term used for the close nexus of agents, airport police, immigration and officials of the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE). Following the arrest of a number of DoFE staff by the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), inspection of workers possessing dual contracts have been intensified at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), and a few of them have been sent back for holding falsified paperwork. As it became tougher to pass through TIA immigration and acquire work approvals from the DoFE through the airport setting, two NAFEA factions held protests for a few weeks demanding changes in the law that stood in their way. They stopped their agitation after the government agreed to address their demands. “By buckling under the pressure of recruiting agencies, the ministry has agreed to abandon all its attempts to introduce changes in the last two years,” said a ministry official. Following increasing cases of anomalies and fraud, the Baburam Bhattarai administration had made it mandatory for recruiting agencies to get their work contracts verified by the embassy. Officials said the involvement of the embassies had resulted in a decline in fraud cases and allowed the reliability of prospective employers to be checked. The provision had also made the missions directly involved in the overall foreign employment process. MoLE officials said the provision to issue work approvals despite discrepancies in the paperwork was endorsed several months ago. However, DoFE spokesperson Divash Acharya said this provision would apply to work contracts that only have minor changes. “As far as I know, approvals will be given even if the professions do not match, but not if the sponsors are different,” said Acharya. Representatives of both the NAFEA factions said the decision would end the lengthy processing and technical difficulties in sending migrant workers. NAFEA Chairman Bal Bahadur Tamang said the rule needed to be changed as the existing provision created problems in sending workers. “However, this provision should not be used as a loophole to dupe workers. They should be protected,” said Tamang. Meanwhile, Prem Katuwal of the second faction said most of the government provisions and regulations were a discouragement to the foreign employment sector. He stressed that there should be immediate changes in unfriendly and outdated provisions. MoLE Spokesperson Buddhi Khadka said the ministry had sent the draft to the Cabinet in a bid to relax some of the provisions, but the existing laws and regulations would be kept under consideration. He refused to divulge any details as the Cabinet was still discussing the draft. “It’s true that the draft sent to the Cabinet aims to make changes. But no changes that go against the existing laws will be made,” added Khadka
Posted on: Sat, 05 Oct 2013 01:25:37 +0000
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