Sunday, August 21, 2011

Israel to reopen jobs for Nepali caregivers

Israel is opening for caregiver jobs to Nepali women from next week after over a two year ban.

Secretary of Ministry of Foreign Affair Dr Madan Kumar Bhatttrai, confirmed the news of reopening of the job destination. “I have heard it from unofficial channels but no official information has come yet,” he said, adding that the information will reach to the ministry next week.

According to him, the government has persistently worked on to open the most lucrative job destination for Nepali migrant women.

The Israeli Interior Ministry said hiring of Nepali caregivers will start according to foreign caregiver hiring policy adopted in May and conditions adopted two years ago.

“Israel is opening caregivers for Nepali women,” an outsourcer in the business Prakash Karki confirmed, adding that Israel is hiring Nepali women under new guidelines and conditions. Israel had stopped hiring Nepali caregivers in April 2009, following Department of Population reports of over 1,000 illegal Nepalis in the country.

The report had blamed outsourcing agencies for charging more service fee for the job and compelling them to become illegal. Nepali migrant women workers had to pay at least $10,000 (Rs 700,000) for the job, while the official service fee was only around $2,800 (Rs 196,000).

Israel had asked Nepal to implement official service fee and punish the outsourcing agencies charging more than that.

However, the government failed to punish the outsourcing agencies identified by the host country. According to new guidelines, caregivers cannot change geographical area of work while changing employers.

Likewise, outsourcing agencies can not charge more than $3,400 (Rs 238,000) for the job that offers $650 (Rs 45,500).

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