WITH the number of Nepali migrant workers flying out increasing by the year, more and more manpower agencies are entering the foreign employment business. In the last fiscal year, 180 agencies acquired licences from the Department of Foreign Employment to send workers for overseas jobs, up from 61 in fiscal 2009-10. According to the department, the total number of licensed agencies in the country has reached 994. Meanwhile, the government has scrapped the permits of 216 agencies till the last fiscal year for being involved in illegal activities like cheating foreign jobseekers. Foreign employment agencies said that competition had increased along with the swelling number of agencies.

“The number of workers supplied by my company has been declining annually with employees of manpower agencies opening their own companies resulting in smaller shares of the pie,” said Kumud Khanal, general secretary of the Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies. Aspiring foreign employment agencies have to put up a deposit of Rs 3 million to obtain a license. Labour supplying agencies are allowed to send workers to 107 countries around the world. However, labour destinations are concentrated in the Gulf where salaries are lower because of difficulties in obtaining visas for the developed countries. “There are very good prospects for supplying trainee workers to Japan under the Japan International Training Cooperation Organisation (JITCO) provision. However, agencies have failed to take advantage of the opportunity for lack of marketing,” said an official at the Ministry of Labour and Transport Management. The official added that the number of agencies and departures of unskilled labourers had been increasing, but that there had been no progress in supplying skilled workers that can really boost remittance inflow. In the last fiscal year, departures of Nepali workers had soared with major labour destinations like Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates going on a hiring spree. According to the department, 354,716 persons left for foreign employment with 111,196 persons securing jobs through personal contact. Departures in the last fiscal year through personal contacts recorded a jump of 69.02 percent from 65,787 in 2009-10. Department officials said that many people leave for employment in the developed countries such as the US, Japan and the UK through personal contacts.

Foreign employment agencies said that competition had increased along with the swelling number of agencies

Published on: 6 August 2011 | The Kathmandu Post