सिंहदरबार संवाददाता
The Nepal Foreign Employment Entrepreneurs Association is currently led by Rajendra Bhandari. Every year, lakhs of youth from Nepal go abroad for employment. Chairman Bhandari says that preparations are being made to send a large number of workers to countries including Europe and America so that this workforce can be more capable and receive higher wages. Here is an excerpt from the conversation that Singhadurbar.com had with the same Chairman Bhandari-
You arrange the money for the citizens who are willing to go abroad for foreign employment from Nepal3## When will we find an alternative to this Gulf? ? How to find one? ?
Foreign employment has become our mandatory obligation now. After Covid, our economy, our government are not stable, due to the burden of unemployment and naturally, people go abroad for better opportunities.
Currently, about 57 or 60 percent of households have used remittances. If we look at remittances last year, about 1.2 to 1.3 trillion rupees came from formal channels. Even though our budget is 16.17 trillion, an amount equivalent to that amount has been received in Nepal as remittances on the periphery of the normally implemented budget. That is why the market has been made dynamic.
But saying this, we cannot always send workers abroad. Human resources should be used within the country. It does not mean always sending them abroad. But if we look at the current situation, we have seen that it will take another 10 years to find employment in Nepal.
Today, the literature that Nepal’s economy is supported by remittances has been established. And its main center is the Gulf and surrounding countries where we do third-class work. Why and how was it delayed to send to a more developed country ?
Currently, 80 to 85 percent of workers are forced to work in ‘3D’ in Malaysia and the Gulf countries alone. We have looked for an alternative. Its important destinations are Europe, America, South America. In which countries are there employment opportunities now in our connections in various countries? We know what kind of manpower is needed there. Recently, the place with the largest employment population is Europe.
There are 43, 44 countries in a territory of Europe, and if we look at the demand in small and large numbers in about 38, 40 countries, we can send 60 to 100,000 people a year. That means the minimum salary is three times higher than in the Gulf countries. If we send 300,000 to the Gulf countries, why not send 100,000 people to Europe? When we send 100,000 people, 3 times more remittances come from Europe.
We want to protect traditional destinations. Demand has also come. The provision of certification of the demand letter in the Foreign Employment Act has been made mandatory in embassies. Those embassies stopped certifying the demand letter in 10, 11 months. They said they did not have the resources. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not even cooperate in this. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the embassies who want to make that certification of the demand letter as their property should make it mandatory.
Our Ministry of Labor and Employment has also issued the Foreign Employment Request Letter Verification Act 2080 to verify the request letter that has come to Europe. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has revoked it. Now, we have not been able to send people to the request letter that has come to Europe. Smugglers have taken advantage of this.
Students who go abroad in the name of studying through consultancies may have also been used. If you had done this, you would have sent them on a working visa with a small investment. Now, young people are sent abroad in the name of studying and put to work in all three jobs. That money remains there.
Not even that. A student has a visa. We have no objection to that. It is our choice. Consultancies send in the name of work. If there are 50, 60 thousand demands, our businessmen cannot send that demand.
That visa is issued by an intermediary between individuals in the Labor Office of the Ministry of Labor and Employment in Tahachal. In our case, they do not have to certify the demand letter. And that person goes to get approval saying that he has issued the visa himself. That work is done by the intermediary in between. Without knowing where and which company the smuggler will go, the visa is made.
Another thing that has been done is that they take people to Dubai, Qatar on a visit visa. From there, they say they will send them to Europe. In such a case, there is no record with the government. What to do? They do not know which country they will go to, the government should stop this.
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## The government sends the government. The remaining ones are sent by businessmen like us, giving permission. The malpractice anomaly that we have can be addressed in one way, but the government cannot regulate the middlemen.
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## Here, there is such a problem that when it comes to foreign employment businessmen, they have a negative intention in society. This entire profession was getting a bad name in the name of three. It was being abused. In the meantime, those who love middlemen entered. Some consultancy agencies also entered. Then, how big, type, and quantity of fraud will be, it will be.
We do business by depositing 2 crores. The cashier takes more money, if something goes wrong, we give money to the victim from that deposit. If that is not enough, we recover the rest and provide treatment. In an individual visa, the responsibility lies with the individual himself.
Nowadays, the complaints filed with the Hwar Hwari police are from this cluster ?
There is no evidence in a visit visa. One thing is causing problems. Only a few complaints have been received in our 900 institutions. Money was cheated. Because it didn’t work. We immediately solve the problem when we reach the destination.
But if we look at the amount of people who have been cheated by setting up a consortium in the name of a person and sending it abroad, it has already reached over a billion. It is a big fraud. Let’s create a mechanism to control this fraud. For that, demand letter verification should be opened in all institutions.
The deposits of manpower entrepreneurs were dumped. We should have gotten some income from that too ?
Yes, it is in our act that a deposit of 10 million is required. We keep 1.5 million in immovable properties. We keep 5 million in cash. We do not get interest. The interest is taken to the fund of the foreign board and deposited. 70 percent. 20 percent has been kept by a committee. We cannot use it. But it is our property, we have to get interest on it.
That interest always comes. But who else takes it ?
No, our interest always comes. That interest goes to the government board. It has not come to our account. The ministry is not showing the kind of stand it should show.
A little more hypocritical popularity also fell behind ? ‘Free Visa Free Ticket’. How is this implemented? ?
The biggest problem right now is among businessmen. Businessmen are in trouble because free visas and free tickets are being used in various ways. We are not the ones who make it. We are only the ones who process it.
The government is also committed to some companies, but it is not being implemented. It is not to harm businessmen. We send people to the list to which the government sends people. We also send people to the same list.
Even if the destination country sends people for free, you can deduct all your office expenses by processing the process here for a service fee of 10 thousand and send the citizen away ?
10 thousand is only available in a few countries. Only after writing 0, not 10 thousand, the demand letter is verified. In Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, you can get up to 10,000. In all other countries, it is called free. We also send people for free.
The government did not send them. We send about 10 percent of the people for free. We put that in through a global tender. First, we put all the expenses ourselves and send them and then we get that money after auditing with the workers. There is also a service charge in that. In fact, the workers are in great pain. We have asked for a minimum of 1 month’s service fee to cover the service fee.
This free visa cap encouraged under-the-table deals. It is also playing a role in accumulating black money for businessmen ?
We will determine the actual cost. Let’s create an environment for businessmen to pay taxes on that cost. We should determine how much these expenses will cost. We should go into the daily system. The current monetary policy itself says that banks will give loans.
If a worker gets into trouble tomorrow, the responsibility will be on the businessmen. We will also pay the worker’s money if there is proof, which will make it easier for the worker. Taxes have also increased.
The outgoing minister was saying that this issue should be removed, right? ?
All ministers are ministers. The government is in popular interest. We are in real interest. Civil society is understanding it in its own way. They do not understand the real thing. INGOs are protesting. The workers are the ones who suffer the most when they protest.
Now let’s determine the tax to be collected. Let the workers do business in banks instead of with metered interest lenders. After all the processes are completed, the bank covers all the expenses. He just has to pay after earning.
There is a very contradictory situation here. The National Bank has said through monetary policy that the bank will give loans to those who want to go abroad. Foreign currency is being earned by forced foreign employment to buy pulses and rice. There is one view that the government should send people abroad by giving loans or not, ##to create employment within the country. And the other is to send skilled people easily. Let’s expand the scope further. There are two views of the government that we should send them to new destinations. What are you thinking about today? ?
Now we cannot immediately stop going abroad. We have to reduce it gradually. For that, we need to create an environment for skilled people to go. For that, we should open multi-training centers here.
The government should invest half the money in all seven provinces in partnerships with the private sector. The reason why there are no people in the country is that people do not have skills. We have said that we are 80 percent dependent on agriculture. We do not have the season to work, unlike Asar, Shrawan and Machining. To stop people from going abroad, the first thing we need to do is to increase the skills of people. We have work. But there is no working culture. If you have the skills, you can work in your home country.
Let’s make a policy by making a circle of the whole migration cycle. Our idea is to convert social security, pension, institutional remittances, and remittances into investment. Of the 1.5 trillion paisa that came in this year, only 4 percent has been invested. The rest of the money went to normal expenses. Only 20 percent of this remittance should be kept in the saving culture, if it is invested in Nepal, it will also create jobs in your home country.
Initially, it was difficult to convince people to send money using channels from there. Even if they bring it through the channel, it is difficult to use it properly here. There are also ways to close it. The hundi channel from Gulf countries is very low. The government of other countries did not allow it to be sent. We could not develop accordingly.
You can calculate the amount of money you will receive while working abroad by looking at how much your salary is today or how much it will increase in government agencies. If you deduct the expenses there and send it to the system, it would be amazing if we could add this much money to the three.
What else do we need to do when we sign an agreement with a company? There is a system to deposit the money into its account. If that account is linked to a Nepali bank, it is not a big deal. This means that his salary comes directly to Nepal. It has to go through the banking channel. If the government cooperates with us, the output will come.
If we look at the records of the Foreign Department, institutional visits have now decreased. Individual visits have increased dramatically. We should discourage such things. The government should open the verification of demand letters.
There is a big problem here. Lower-level citizens go to the Gulf. They earn money and send it here. When they return, neither the state respects them. Nor do the employees there. You send them on a plane. They look down on you as manpower entrepreneurs. These two parts are burdening the country. The situation has become like rice is being cooked. Society is still not able to look at them with a good eye. Isn’t it ?
The policy was made wrong. The system is being abused. We talk about our workers coming from different countries. If they refuse to provide services and facilities, then we should not spend on them from our own pockets. Now it should be black and white. This will also make the system dignified.
The government itself has played a role in making foreign employment unorganized. It is encouraging people to do unethical work by sending them from institutional to institutional.
The policy says so. No institutional arrangements have been made for sending remittances. The government has imposed a monkey ladder. This work should be stopped. We are ready to improve the shortcomings of the businessmen. We are ready to support the government. But we cannot be blamed for something that is not there.
A citizen goes abroad to earn money in his youth while he has strength in his arms. He returns when his strength decreases. How can the skills learned by the three be used in Nepal? ?
Collaborate with the private sector to invest remittances, save remittances and give them schemes. Provide soft loans to those who want to work, and create a mechanism where society buys what they produce. Programs should be organized to promote production. Programs should be introduced to teach their families how and where to invest remittances.
Foreign employment should be reduced. Let’s stop those who go on individual and free visas. Institutional ones should be monitored. This will also make it safer if they go. We take responsibility. Laws should be made so that the skills learned from abroad can be used in Nepal. We emphasize on making arrangements to eliminate distortions and send fewer people and receive more remittances.
प्रतिक्रिया दिनुहोस्