On January 11th, the Foreign Employment Department announced the compensation of Rs. It is not clear how many victims have been compensated at the rate of Rs.

In the last 6 months alone, 5 thousand 116 complaints have been registered in the department. At least 50 crore rupees have been claimed in it. Those who claim like this are those who have been cheated from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 15 lakh. There are two types of victims who file a complaint in the department. One who reaches the destination country during foreign employment . However, according to their contract, the work, salary and service facilities are different and not available. And, they request that the manpower (institution) refund the expenses they have paid. There are those who sink money without going elsewhere . Those who have handed over lakhs of rupees to agents (persons) without strong evidence . There is a huge difference between the amount claimed when filing a complaint at the

department and the amount the victim gets back from the organization/person. That is, the victim has not received the amount as claimed. It is difficult to get hold of only the amount you have paid. Where is the situation to get it with compensation? Even if we look at the last financial year alone, it is a leap. In that year, 1 billion 72 crore rupees were claimed in 4358 complaints in the department. In that, the victims got back only 29 million rupees.

Justice: Out of the reach of workers

In order to make foreign employment 'safe, dignified and orderly' and to protect the rights of workers, the government has implemented the Foreign Employment Act-2064 as a separate law. In section 36 of the Act, there is a clear provision that if the employer does not provide employment according to the conditions specified in the contract, compensation must be paid. Not only that, it has been arranged that ``if the money is not sent abroad by giving false assurances or showing temptation, the amount taken from the workers and fifty percent of the amount must be paid''. There is a strict legal provision for manpower to be fined from three to five lakh rupees and imprisonment from three to seven years, and the license of the manpower company will be cancelled.

Its execution side is very thin . Those workers are far from the reach of justice . This is confirmed by the Auditor General's report for the financial year 2079/80. In that year, only 14 thousand 730 complaints were filed in the Nepali Embassy in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates. In which 46 percent of the complaints are related to non-payment of wages according to the contract, 21 percent to non-implementation of the contract, 21 percent to insurance/license not issued or renewed/exit visa not given, 8 percent to beatings/intimidation and 4 percent to non-working environment . They have not filed a complaint in the department to claim compensation.  Where will we go with the case? Do you go to file a lawsuit at the labor office of the destination country because the local employer did not provide salary benefits according to the contract? Abhimanyu Rimal, who did not work in Saudi Arabia for four months, says, "I am not sure that I will get my money back when I go back to Nepal."

The situation of those who cannot pay the amount and cannot go to work is on the one hand . On the other hand, workers are forced to pay higher than the prescribed cost. Those who pay high cost fees are already reaching the door of the department . They reach only at that time, when the condition of getting work and salary is not created. According to the study report of the National Human Rights Commission, the practice of not giving receipts of the amount taken by the manpower businessmen to the workers who are going to work abroad is being systematically and widely done. 

There is a provision that the department will warn the manpower businessmen who commit fraud for the first time, a fine of fifty thousand rupees for the second time and a fine of one lakh rupees for the third time and the license can be revoked . The Auditor General's report is only taking action on manpower businessmen who commit frauds and fines. The report states that the department has only taken action to fill in the wrongdoing and fine according to section 51 and 53 of the law regarding the need to investigate the offending licensees and submit them to the court. Wrong actions in the field of foreign employment should be discouraged by taking action according to the offense and keeping a systematic record of it.' 

Labour-friendly policy counter-productive 

21 June 2072 The Ministry of Labor and Employment decided that the employer should bear the cost of visa and ticket for Nepali workers going to 7 labor destination countries including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and UAE. Out of the total number of people who go abroad for work, about 95 percent go to countries where the government has implemented free visa and ticket arrangements. The share of these countries is about 70 percent in the total remittances to Nepal. 

Based on the policy decision of Labor, the Supreme Court issued a directive order to effectively implement the decision of free visa and ticket on 18th of 2075 . It means not to put any kind of financial burden on the workers . The employer should also pay the service fee for sending workers to the manpower professional. If that service fee is not received from the employer, there is a provision that 10,000 rupees can be taken from the worker. Even after a decade of implementation of this policy, it has not been implemented in practice. 

According to Nepal Rastra Bank's 2075 report on 'Effect of free visa, free ticket provision on foreign employment', about one-third of the workers who went abroad have only paid the minimum fee . A quarter seems to have paid more than 50,000 rupees to foreign employment companies. After the implementation of this policy, the average cost of workers going abroad decreased. However, this cost could not last long. After Malaysia was closed for a long time, its pressure was seen to go to the Gulf countries . Then the cost started to increase .

Currently, those who go for foreign employment pay at least 100,000 rupees. According to a study conducted by the Migrant Nepalese Coordinating Committee and the Center for the Study of Labor and Mobility, which has been coordinating with the Nepali Embassy and the Department of Foreign Employment, from 2018 to 2020, 44.6 percent of workers earn between 80,000 and 1,35,000 rupees and 31.7 percent of workers earn between 1,35 and 1,80,000  have borne the cost .  Since 2022, the cost of labor going to the Gulf and Malaysia has reached over three lakh. The cost of labor to go to Europe is more than 7 lakh rupees. 

According to Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Equidem, the international organizations working for the human rights of the workers, but the effective implementation of the free visa and ticket policies are not being published and reports are worrying.  "Despite taking large sums of money from the workers, due to the rule of free visa and ticket, only 10,000 rupees are given to the workers who are in trouble, they have to lose a large amount of money," said Equidem Research South Asia Director Rameshwar Nepal. It's irony to become reproductive. Why is such a popular labor-friendly policy finally failing? Rastra Bank has some political and some  The practical reason has been shown, "in addition to the provision of free visas and tickets, it has been found that there is a lack of capacity of the government institutional structure to control and manage foreign employment as a whole".

In order to monitor the foreign employment professionals, to effectively implement the existing system and the problems seen in the bodies related to foreign employment have not been addressed.

According to the people who go to foreign employment, while the government monitoring is weak, the manpower professionals are taking funds in an opaque manner . Foreign employment professionals are saying that unless the employer or the destination country is completely honest, they will not be able to hire workers with a service fee of 10,000 rupees or zero cost.

According to Rajendra Bhandari, President of the Foreign Employment Professionals Association, the employer is charging the cost with the workers. The subject of 'free visa and free ticket' is only popular. The government made decisions by giving populist slogans. They did not make decisions by being realistic. This policy is not implemented unless the destination country wants it," he says. "Before 2072, there was a ceiling on the cost charge. There was a policy of charging 80,000 rupees in Malaysia and 70,000 rupees in the Gulf. The businessmen were sending it to the ceiling. There is a cost when sending from here to the destination country.'

According to him, not only the businessmen of the private sector but the government  Is sending with the cost of visa and ticket . Workers going to Korea and Israel are paying visa and ticket fees. Millions of expenses must be paid by the workers. "Sending workers costs money," he says, "the government can't send them for free." And how can the businessman be sent to zero trouble? From the destination country, only 4/5 percent of the workers receive a zero-cost demand . The remaining 95 percent will go by paying money.'  

A terrifying portrait of personal fraud 

In recent years, the number of foreign employment has exceeded 7 lakh. Of that, 47 percent went through Manpower .  37.93 percent returned to the same company after a vacation. Individual access and contacts were 12.82. In the first 6 months of the current fiscal year, 393,67 people, including 44,826 women, have gone to countries in the Gulf, Europe and East Asia. Out of that, 64,459 people went to foreign employment on the basis of personal access. The 'trend' of going or sending in person is increasing .

The government has adopted Section 45 of the Good Governance (Management and Operation) Act, 2064 to regulate the labor approval process of Nepali workers who go to foreign employment individually. Procedures related to the process of taking labor permit - 2069' was issued. It had maintained the strike so that no one could hire workers randomly and personally. In other words, only mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, brothers, brothers, sisters, husbands and wives who are abroad can get labor permits by certifying the contract through the embassy. If the relationship opening document cannot be submitted, there are some conditions for the embassy to certify the contract for the purpose of employment as a company, household or private worker. In which 'if the worker has already worked in the destination country before returning home, if he is going to re-employment in the country and company where he has previously worked, if he is looking for employment abroad through the Internet or online, the semi-skilled selected through the online interview,  There is a legal provision that labor approval should be given if there is a skilled or highly skilled position, upon a written request from the government agency or diplomatic mission or related officials of the country where the embassy is located, and if proof of the sponsor's (employer's) credibility, minimum wage guarantee, and worker's safety are provided. 

Based on this, the brokers are taking high amounts of money from individuals and sending them for foreign employment. It also seems that the situation of being cheated has become more high . The full details of who personally cheated and how much are not public. According to the information available from the department, just looking at the preliminary data of the last five years, at least four billion and 16 million rupees have been cheated. It is not clear how much money is trapped from how many people. However, it clearly shows the extent to which the size of personal fraud has spread. If you are personally cheated again, it is not possible to get compensation easily .

Young people who are victims of going to foreign employment have to struggle a lot to get compensation for fraud complaints personally rather than from manpower . The director general of the department, Surya Bahadur Khatri, said that it is very difficult to compensate victims who pay money to agents for foreign employment. Those who go to foreign employment through manpower. They do business in Manpower's office . It is not difficult to compensate them. The department has been giving compensation even after cutting the bond of manpower. It happens easily . If you are personally cheated, the process of getting compensation is very long," he said.

Two thousand 16 complaints were received in the last 6 months. Out of this, only 98 complaints have gone to the Foreign Employment Tribunal in Kathmandu for judicial process. Two hundred and ninety-seven agreements were reached in this.  The group of people who filed this complaint settled for a small amount of money as it took more time.  

Offenses related to foreign employment are considered criminal offences. Provision to be adopted for the hearing of the related complaint  is .  If there is no agreement in the Foreign Employment Department, the final decision is made by the Foreign Employment Tribunal. After going through the judicial process, the timing of its resolution is uncertain . Looking at some of the cases decided by the Foreign Employment Tribunal as an example, it is even more complicated. Dhading Kiran Shrestha, Indra Bahadur Tamang, Sagar Kumar Shrestha, Rajuram Mool and Kazi Shrestha of Nuwakot paid 31 lakh 87 thousand rupees to Paras Lohani of Nuwakot to go to Macau. After they could not go to Macao, the five people filed a complaint with the Foreign Employment Department on August 16, 2074 asking Lohani to take action and not return the sunk money. The department took this case to the tribunal. The final decision from the judiciary was on January 11, 2078. The tribunal sentenced Lohani to a fine of 150,000 rupees and one year and 6 months imprisonment.

Even though it takes time to get a decision from the tribunal, there are instances where the punishment has been determined as requested by the victim. He took 10 lakh rupees with him and did not send it to Poland  Rojan Pariyar of Jhapa filed a complaint against Abhishek Limbu of Elam, Pradeep Tamang of Kavre, Prakash Bahadur Thapa of Bajura, Prakash Gadal of Solukhumbu and Aman Bhujel of Kathmandu on 23 August 2076. We had to wait till the 1st of Chait 78 for its decision.  The tribunal ruled that Limbu, Tamang and Bhujeel, found guilty, should be fined Rs 150,000, imprisoned for one year and six months, Rs 700,000 restitution, 50% of the fine should be paid to Rs 350,000 and four per cent of the fine (Rs 18,000) should be deposited in the victims' relief fund. 

The government abolished the agent system in February 2075 to control personal fraud. All the work of agents is said to be 'illegal', but even now Manpower itself is continuing to recruit workers through agents without authorization. On the other hand, due to the complex arrangement of demand letter verification, the tendency to go through personal is increasing due to the compromise between agents/manpower professionals. Studies have found that more than 90 percent of those who have gone abroad for employment or are preparing to go, are mediated by personal agents. 

Most of the exploited and defrauded workers do not want to go through the process of the case as the fraud complaint mechanisms related to foreign employment are located in Kathmandu and will add more financial burden. As much as the compensation has been received, it has reached the stage of being satisfied or even withdrawing the case . "I paid 300,000 rupees to the agent to go to Romania." I had to stay in Kathmandu to settle the case," Umesh Tharu of Dang said, "The agent was ready to pay only 50,000 rupees. We had to settle for this.'