More than two-thirds of Nepali migrant workers abroad will not choose the same recruitment agency they chose the first time if they were to go again on foreign employment. This is according to a report from the Migrant Recruitment Advisor in Nepal.

The report is based on the responses of 1,539 migrant workers and returnee migrant workers. Among the respondents, 70% said they will not take the service of the same recruitment firm which they chose the first time if they have to go on foreign employment again.

Similarly, 98% of the respondents have said they have paid service charges more than the amount fixed by the government while going abroad for employment. They have said that they paid more than NPR 100,000 (USD 846.50) as a service charge. Meanwhile, 2% have said they did not pay any extra fees or charges in the recruitment process.

The government has fixed the minimum service charge and implemented the 'free visa, free ticket' provision for the main destination countries while no fees are charged for Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, Mauritius and some other countries. Despite these provisions, a majority of the respondents have said they had to pay ‘exorbitant fees’ during the recruitment process.

Nearly one-third of the respondents have said they were not given jobs in the destination countries which they were promised at the time of recruitment while 53% of them stated that they were not getting the salary mentioned in the contract.

Meanwhile, 96% of the respondents said their employers have not returned their passports and other documents to them. While 26% of them have said they would return to their previous employer. This shows that a large number of migrant workers are not satisfied with their employers.

The Migrant Recruitment Advisor states that although the government has adopted various policies to make the migrant recruitment process fair and dignified, the implementation of such policies has remained weak.

“The workers are still vulnerable to abusive recruitment especially when they are seeking jobs in an environment of high unemployment, exacerbated by Covid-19 pandemic, when there is intense competition for jobs both at home and abroad and when they are not protected by strong and effective workers' organizations and clear laws and effective enforcement,” the Advisor stated.