Nepal and Qatar governments have vowed to crack down on manpower agencies that illegally charge money from the Qatar-bound Nepali migrant workers.
“Nepalis need not pay a single rupee to go to work in Qatar,” said Tek Bahadur Gurung, Nepal’s state minister for labor. “Qatari companies that hire migrant workers pay for everything – from their visa fee to air-ticket.”
Gurung held a meeting with Qatar’s labor minister Abdullah Bin Salih Al-Khulaifi in Kathmandu on Sunday to discuss ways to ease difficulties facing Nepali workers on the way to or while working in Qatar.
At a press conference after meeting his Nepali counterpart, Qatar’s labor minister Al-Khulaifi said: “Our law requires Qatari companies to pay for everything to hire migrant workers and anyone who does not abide by this law will be punished.”
Talking to Nepali Times after the press conference, Gurung said manpower agencies are illegally charging anything between Rs 70,000-Rs 100,000 from Nepali migrant workers bound for Qatar.
“It’s illegal,” he said. “We’ll blacklist those manpower companies that charge money from the Qatar-bound Nepali workers.”