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Hundreds of migrant workers continue to get swindled despite several laws in place. 

The Department of Foreign Employment has received around 800 complaints against fraud overseas job agents and agencies in the last nine months. The complainants have requested for the recovery of Rs 373m from fraud agents and agencies. Nearly half of them were defrauded off about Rs 232m by individual agents. 

These fraud victims are entitled to get a total of Rs 600m in compensation, but most of them have not, as the department has been unable to deal with the complaints swiftly. The department already has many pending cases from the previous years. 

Out of around 800 complaints filed in the last nine months, only 45 cases have been registered for legal aid and 150 cases are under review. The department also brokered settlements in 73 cases and provided nearly Rs 55m to the victims. Forty-seven job agencies were also made to pay Rs 14m in compensation. 

“The majority of cases are concerning agents and agencies charging high fees from workers with the false promise of jobs abroad,” says Shesh Narayan Poudel, director-general of the department.

Cases of workers getting sent for jobs different than what they had been promised are also fairly common. 

“In most cases, we try to negotiate settlements between the victims and the concerned agencies and agents. If that doesn’t work, we take the matter to the court,” says Poudel. 

Fraud cases have not been discouraged despite the government announcing ‘Free Visa, Free Ticket’ policy in 2015. This is largely due to the failure of the concerned authorities to enforce the policy and take action against unscrupulous agencies and agents. 

Rameshwor Nepal, a labor migration researcher, says many foreign job agencies and agents have adopted the policy of earning by hook or by crook, and the workers are at the receiving end. 

“Overseas job industry is rife with frauds,” he says. “This wouldn’t be the case had the laws and regulations brought to protect the workers were implemented strictly.”

Under the ‘Fee Visa, Free Ticket’ rule, it was said, foreign job agencies cannot charge more than Rs 10,000 as a service fee from their clients. But many job agencies have been found charging their clients up to 20 times more than the set ceiling.

Advocate Som Luitel, who specializes in migrant workers’ rights, says many people are becoming victims of fraud from foreign job agencies because they do not know about their legal rights. 

“Many victims cannot furnish enough evidence to back up their claims. On top of that, the foreign employment department has also failed to investigate the cases effectively,” he says.

Anandaraj Pant, registrar at the department, says ideally, it should take no longer than three months to settle one case, but many victims don’t get justice for years because they cannot substantiate their claims with evidence. 

“Cases involving agents can get particularly hard because they abscond after swindling their victims,” he says.

Nepal reported six new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 2, 856 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which six returned positive. Likewise, 617 people underwent antigen tests, of which no one were tested positive.

The Ministry said that no one died of virus in the last 24 hours. The Ministry said that eight infected people recovered from the disease.

As of today, there are 147 active cases in the country.

Coming to the help of its neighbours, India will export 1.7 lakh tonnes of urea and Diammonium Phosphate during this year to Nepal and will also supply 65,000 tonnes of urea to Sri Lanka under the existing $1 billion Indian line of credit, Times of India reported.

While the supply of urea to Sri Lanka comes at a time when the country is facing a huge economic crisis officials said the export of fertilisers to Nepal is also a strategic move to keep Kathmandu from seeking help from China in meeting its domestic requirement.

Sources said India will export 1.2 lakh tonnes of urea and 50, 000 tonnes of DAP to Nepal. Similarly, another 5,300 tonnes of DAP will be exported to Bhutan. Sri Lanka would be the second country to get urea from India after Nepal in spite of a ban on the export of the chemical fertiliser, according to Time of India.

TOI has learnt that the export of urea and DAP to Nepal wil be as per the MOU (agreement) signed between the two countries. Sources for the demand of fertilizers has gone up in Nepal after the Indian enforcement agencies cracked down on people who were involved in smuggling of urea. In the past 2-3 months, around 300 FIRs have been registered against smugglers in Uttar Pradesh alone and another 50-60 FIRs have been registered in Bihar.

Members of the queer community are increasingly vocal about their rights and the state’s responsibility to allow them to live with dignity.

In this connection, the LGBTIQA+ community celebrated the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia (IDAHOTB) on May 17 this week. Mitini Nepal, an NGO working for the rights and dignity of Lesbian, Bisexuals and Transgender people, organized an event in Gairidhara, Kathmandu. Nanda Bahadur Pun, vice president of Nepal, inaugurated the event. People danced, sang, and recited poetry. All in all, it was an essential coming together of people of different identities.

Laxmi Ghalan, founder and president of Mitini Nepal, said events like these are crucial for the society to understand and accept the LGBTIQA+ community. She said the LGBTIQA+ people face domestic violence and are isolated and thus anxious. They also don’t have access to proper medical facilities. “Homophobia, stemming from a lack of understanding of sexual identities and orientation, is the main reason behind all the problems we face on a daily basis,” she said. Ruby Rana, former Miss Nepal, added treating homosexuality as a disease is indicative of our narrow mindset.