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Kathmandu, Jan 29: Nepali workers travelling to the United Arab Emirates continue to face an added financial burden as Nepal has failed to pursue effective diplomatic engagement with the UAE.

For the past two months, workers heading to the UAE have been forced to pay more than Rs 14,000 per person in additional costs under the pretext of police report certification. The fee was introduced after the UAE tightened entry requirements for Nepali nationals following the Gen Z movement and made police reports mandatory.

The UAE currently charges 353.27 dirhams, equivalent to Rs 14,144 at the current exchange rate, to certify a police report. Before this requirement, police reports were not mandatory for UAE entry, and workers did not have to bear this cost.

Foreign employment entrepreneurs say workers are being exploited as the added financial burden continues without government intervention. They complain that the government has failed to take a firm diplomatic stand, resulting in increased costs and procedural hassles for migrant workers.

Mahesh Kumar Basnet, general secretary of the Foreign Employment Entrepreneurs Association, said the government has remained silent despite the need for urgent diplomatic efforts to scrap what he called unnecessary, humiliating, and impractical arrangements imposed on workers.

He questioned the silence of the Nepali Embassy in the UAE and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, saying repeated appeals to concerned authorities have yielded no results. Basnet warned that if the government does not act, entrepreneurs may be forced to halt labour migration to the UAE.

Basnet also said workers must wait around two weeks to obtain a police report that remains valid for only three months, adding to their difficulties. He expressed disappointment that trade unions and labour rights organisations, both national and international, have also remained silent on the issue.

The Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security said it has already written to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to initiate diplomatic talks. However, a ministry official admitted that no strong diplomatic move has yet been taken. The official said that after the Gen Z movement, the UAE had nearly stopped Nepali entry and later reopened it with the police report requirement due to security concerns.

There have also been allegations that the added financial burden is being imposed with the involvement of government bodies, which officials have denied. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued a statement rejecting the allegations and claiming it remains ready to coordinate to make foreign employment safer and more dignified.

Despite the government fixing a maximum foreign employment fee of Rs 10,000, workers in practice are forced to pay between Rs 200,000 and Rs 400,000 to go to the UAE. The UAE remains the top destination for Nepali workers, accounting for nearly one third of all labour approvals in recent years.

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People’s News Monitoring Service