Nepal and Israel have signed an agreement allowing Nepali women to work as caretakers in the Jewish state.
Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE)’s Director General Bharat Raj Subedi and Israeli ambassador to Nepal Yaron Mayer signed an agreement on Friday, revoking the ban on Nepali women caretakers in Israel.
Five years ago, Israel had banned Nepali women caretakers following reports of their exploitation at the hands of labour recruitment agencies. Recruitment agencies reportedly charged more than Rs 800,000 from Nepali women caretakers. Later, the government fixed a ceiling of Rs 70,000 prohibiting labour recruiters from charging Nepali women caretakers more than that. But labour recruiters rejected the ceiling and stopped sending Nepali domestic help to Israel.
The new agreement, however, has no room for labour recruitment agencies. “We have adopted a G2G (government to government) model to send Nepali women caretakers to Israel,” said Labour Minister Tek Bahadur Gurung. “It will minimise the risk of exploitation and abuse.”