Aspiring migrant workers being duped by Nepali recruiting agencies and sub-agents in the name of foreign employment has been reported widely in the recent past.

However, Indian nationals have also been found luring Nepali youths with the prospect of jobs in countries such as Canada.

“Nepali recruiting agencies and agents have been cheating and exploiting Nepali migrant workers for a long time. Now, it seems even foreigners have started following suit,” Kumar Prasad Dahal, director-general at the foreign employment department told the Post.

Officials from the department of foreign employment raided the Tokha-based office (named “Ganpati Happy Life”) of a recruiting agency earlier this week run by Indian nationals, who had been promising Nepalis jobs in Canada.

“What is worrying about the case is that Indian nationals were working in cahoots with Nepali recruiting agencies to cheat Nepali job seekers. The agency even provided office space to the scamsters,” said Dahal.

According to Kushal Baral, a section officer with the department who led the raid, the gang was actively contacting Nepali youths through Facebook with job offers in Canada and European countries.

“They had set up a fake office by tying up with a Nepali recruiting agency. However, the company was not registered anywhere,” said Baral. “We also recovered receipts issued in the name of the same unregistered company.”

A Nepali recruiting agency, Triple Star Employment Pvt Ltd, was found to be colluding with the four Indian nationals by providing them office space.

According to Baral, the company was demanding INR 8,000 from each candidate to “file their application” and Rs100,000 when an offer letter would arrive.

“We have not yet received any complaints from any individuals who were duped by these two agencies,” said Baral. “Those who were cheated might come in touch with authorities later. But we have found that these people had operated their office near Naya Buspark and had recently moved to Tokha.”

The department has detained the four Indians for further investigation to prevent them from destroying evidence.

“What they have done is illegal. No foreigner can interview and hire Nepali workers without government permission. Even registered agencies have to seek permission even before collecting fees from workers,” said Baral.

“Foreign agencies can tie-up with Nepali agencies for business purposes by setting up an office elsewhere. They can not do the hiring and collect the money in Nepal.”

However, this is not the first time that foreign nationals cheated Nepalis seeking jobs abroad. In 2018, two Ukrainian nationals were arrested for duping Nepalis with a false promise of landing jobs abroad.

The Ukrainian couple, who had come to Nepal on a tourist visa, were found running a private firm called People Work Group in Putalisadak, Kathmandu and luring unemployed Nepalis through social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

In November, government officials had found some Qatari nationals and a vehicle belonging to the Qatari embassy on the premises of the agency in Kathmandu, where hiring of Nepali workers was taking place by snubbing official procedures, raising suspicions of illicit practices.

The department has summoned the operators of Triple Star Employment Pvt. Ltd to furnish an explanation and extended the detention of the four Indians by four days.

Meanwhile, for government officials overseeing foreign employment sector, the challenge seems to be mounting with foreign agents now in the picture.

“These agents would probably take Nepali candidates to India and leave them stranded there,” said Dahal, the director-general. “Luckily, nothing as such has happened so far. But it looks like the foreign employment sector is turning out to be a fertile ground for foreigner scammers.”