Recruitment firms ‘fleecing’ migrant workers despite zero cost policy

KATHMANDU: While the government has prohibited companies from collecting fees from workers heading to Gulf countries and Malaysia in the name of visa processing and air tickets, many manpower companies continue to exploit workers.

In 2015, the government made a policy decision requiring recruitment companies to offer free visas and free air tickets to workers bound for job destinations in seven Gulf countries and Malaysia. However, workers have complained that these companies are charging them as much as Rs 500,000.

The Ministry of Labor, Employment, and Social Security took this step to make employers in Malaysia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, and Jordan cover the costs of visa processing and airfare to recruit workers from Nepal. Under this policy, recruitment agencies are required to publish recruitment notices in newspapers that highlight ‘free visa, free tickets’ to prevent the exploitation of workers. Despite these provisions, recruitment companies are still imposing substantial fees on workers.

Kabiraj Adhikari, the information officer of the Department of Foreign Employment, said they were receiving complaints from workers that they are being charged anywhere between Rs 80,000 and Rs 500,000. “They only have a receipt for Rs 10,000 paid to recruitment companies. This is making it difficult for us to take action against these recruitment agents,” he added.

According to Adhikari, the department receives complaints from as many as 30 workers daily, reporting overcharging by recruitment agents.

Government records show that 3 million Nepali youths have left for job destinations in the Gulf and Malaysia over the past eight years. These workers should have been able to travel for work without having to pay for airfare and visa processing. However, most of them have paid substantial fees to the agents, according to studies conducted by the department.

Rs 9 billion defrauded from workers in 8 years
More than 500,000 youths depart for job destinations in Gulf countries each year. Recruitment companies are unlawfully collecting up to Rs 3 billion from them.

The department has received complaints from 14,227 youths who accuse recruitment agents of defrauding them of Rs 8.9 billion over the past eight years. After investigating the complaints, the department has made the concerned recruitment agencies pay Rs 2 billion as compensation to the workers.

Recruitment companies and their agents are known to charge significant fees to workers going to foreign job destinations.

Initially, recruitment agents opposed the decision to implement the free visa and free ticket policy for foreign employment in Gulf countries, as directed by the Minister of State for Labor, Employment, and Social Security, Tek Bahadur Gurung. Although manpower eventually agreed to operate under the new policy, they have been found collecting fees from workers indirectly, resulting in lost government revenue through taxes, according to foreign employment experts.

“If the free visa, free ticket policy is strictly enforced, Nepali workers will be relieved from the burden of paying high recruitment fees. This would also discourage competition among recruitment agents to secure orders from overseas employers,” Jivan Baniya, an employment expert, said.