A/HRC/38/41/Add.1
Private actors are involved in providing these services and the Special Rapporteur notes that
potential migrants are often overcharged. He notes the need for better regulation and
recommends institutionalizing the system in close collaboration with the countries of
destination, for instance by ensuring medical certificates are issued by public hospitals.
41.
Recruitment fees and the commonly resulting debt increase the precariousness of
migrants’ situations and may lead to situations of debt bondage, forced labour and
trafficking. The Special Rapporteur urges the authorities as a matter of priority to monitor
recruitment agencies more effectively and enforce penalties against those that violate
provisions in the legislation, to ensure better protection of migrant workers from situations
of debt bondage, forced labour and trafficking.
D.
Pre-departure training and information
42.
The Government has made progress in enhancing access to information for potential
migrants, introducing a mandatory two-day pre-departure orientation course. The Special
Rapporteur also recognizes the efforts made by the Government to collaborate with United
Nations agencies, international organizations, international donor agencies and NGOs to
improve access to information, justice and skills development training, and provide
assistance to returnees and the families left behind. In that regard, he welcomes the
establishment of migrant resource centres, some of them set up in District Office premises.
43.
The Special Rapporteur observes that the mandatory pre-departure training is only
available in the capital and a few selected districts, which involves further costs for those
taking part. Furthermore, the Special Rapporteur was informed that the content is limited to
general information. He observes that they could be enhanced, both in length and content
and suggests they include information on migrants’ rights and redress mechanisms, on
consular assistance and on health and self-care.
44.
The Special Rapporteur commends the Government for introducing the 2012
technical and vocational education and training policy, in which it recognized the need for
skills-development training programmes. At the same time, the Special Rapporteur received
complaints that the skills training was inadequate and that migrant women especially would
benefit from enhanced skills training. He was informed that domestic workers were often
not familiar with modern domestic appliances and many migrant workers lacked basic
language skills. The provision of skills training would render domestic workers less
vulnerable to abuse in private households.
45.
The Special Rapporteur considers the adoption of the Local Government Operation
Act to be a positive step. It obliges local government to provide basic foreign employment
services, such as the collection of data, provision of information, provision of skills and
financial literacy training and the reintegration of returnees. He encourages the Foreign
Employment Promotion Board to work in close collaboration and coordination with local
authorities in establishing foreign employment services by setting standards, providing
guidance and ensuring cost-sharing.
46.
Overall, the Special Rapporteur observed that vocational skills, adequate orientation
programmes for employment and awareness of the migration process needed to be
improved, in order to ensure that migration decisions are well-informed and that migrants
know their rights and how to seek help or lodge a complaint.
E.
Consular assistance
47.
The Special Rapporteur welcomes the appointment of labour attachés and
counsellors in nine Nepalese diplomatic missions. That is an important step for the
protection of migrants, as international law recognizes their right to seek consular
assistance, the exercise of which must be allowed without any obstacles by destination
countries.
48.
The Special Rapporteur heard accounts of various violations of the Foreign
Employment Act, which rendered migrant workers more vulnerable to exploitation and
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