Only 13 quake-bereaved migrants apply for ticket refund

KATHMANDU, July 6: Two- and-half months after the April 25 earthquake, only 13 migrant workers who lost family members in the catastrophy have sought airfare reimbursement, in stark contrast to the numbers expected.

The government had announced that it would provide two-way airfare to migrant workers who lost family members in the earthquake. One's father and mother and members of the nuclear family are defined as family members in the Foreign Employment Act.

Five Nepali migrant workers in Malaysia, three in Saudi Arabia and three from the UAE have filed applications for airfare reimbursement at the Foreign Employment Promotion Board (FEPB). Similarly, one migrant worker each returning from Qatar and Korea have sought the airfare refund.

"We had expected that at least 500 migrant workers would come forward for airfare refimd," said Raghu Raj Kafle, executive director at FEPB.Either due to lack of information about the facilities being provided by the government or the lengthy process involved in claiming the refund amount, very few migrant workers have come to FEPB. Also, the government doesn't have any data to tally the number of migrant worker families with the number of deaths in the recent quake.

Moreover, FEBP hasn't yet reimbursed airfare to those who have sought it even though the deadline for returning to Nepal was June 15.

"We have asked our embassies in the destination countries to provide us with the records of migrant workers who traveled to Nepal after the quake. We need to find out if the migrant workers received air tickets from their employers or any other private company," informed Kafle.

He added that they have found that many returning migrants were provided airfare by the respective employer companies.

Certificate of relationship with the quake deceased, death certificates of family members from the respective district offices and proof of death due to earthquake from hospitals or district offices are the documents required

Issuing a notice, FEPB had said that it would require proof that the returnee migrant workers hadn't been sponsored by any other party for their airfare, that they hold the legal status of migrant workers and their contract period was still valid.

"In some of the applications, the migrant workers don't have the boarding pass of their plane journey," said Kafle.

FEPB says it will need to hold another ministerial-level meeting if it is to provide reimbursement of airfare to those who have returned to Nepal after June 15.

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