Roshan Sedhai

While millions of Nepali migrant workers continue to suffer in absence of effective welfare initiatives for them, the government has been misusing Migrant Workers’ Welfare Fund.

Foreign Employment Promotion Board (FEPB), the government body responsible for the fund management, is preparing to buy a vehicle for Nepal’s mission in Korea these days. FEPB recently gave its approval to the Nepali Embassy in South Korea to start the process to buy a car following a written request from the latter. Tika Prasad Bhandari, FEPB acting executive director, said his office is currently waiting details, and the required money will be released through the meeting of the board members.  

This is not the first time FEPB has agreed to buy vehicles for Nepali missions. Earlier, it had released Rs 6.5 million from the fund to purchase cars for the Nepali missions in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. It had  also released millions more to cover other administrative expenses like feeding embassy staff and training foreign employment agency operators, regardless of the criticisms from stakeholders and other concerned sides.    

Although legal provision shows that such spending clearly stands against the real principle with which the fund was established, Bhandari justifies it by claiming that its intended motive is to ensure better service to the workers.

“Moreover, we have taken consent of the workers’ right organisation and other stakeholders to release the fund,” said Bhandari. But, the Post discovered that most of the decisions were taken in absence of nearly 40 percent of the board member. There are 25 members in the board headed by the labour minister, and it requires the presence of at least 13 board members in the meeting to release the fund.

The Foreign Employment Act 2064 states that the workers’ fund shall be used for “training of migrant workers , proving education and health facilities to their children, paying compensation to the injured and family of dead migrants and evacuating them during crises. Other purposes of the fund are to arrange employment-oriented training for returnees and return the bodies of deceased migrant workers .

Representatives of the Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies (NAFEA) accused FEPB of making the decisions unilaterally, against the spirit of the welfare fund when it was set up. All overseas-bound migrant workers are required to deposit Rs 1,000 in the fund. 

Bal Bahadur Tamang, NAFEA chairman, said the board seldom invited him to the meeting. “We have now realised that the decision was wrong as the cars are being used for personal use of embassy staffers. We were told that would be used for workers,” said Tamang. 

Buddhi Bahadur Khadka, spokesperson of the Ministry of Labour and Employment, said the fund has been used in “special cases” to ensure smooth functioning of organisation providing service to migrant workers.

Published on: 30 March 2014 | The Kathmandu Post