Nepal was set to roll out Saudi Arabia’s mandatory skills verification programme, but has cancelled its plans following protests by its private employment agencies. According to local media reports - Opens in new tab, agencies argue that Saudi Arabia was “bypassing bilateral labour mechanisms and adding new financial burdens on migrant workers.”
MRRORS had previously reported on the issues pertaining to Saudi Arabia’s Professional Accreditation Programme (PAP), also known as Takamol or Skills Verification Programme. The mandatory testing scheme imposed both financial and logistical burdens on migrant workers without corresponding benefits, while generating huge profits for the Kingdom. Governments at origin also reap some financial benefit from this programme.
Launched in 2022, the PAP is managed by Takamol Holding, which is an initiative of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (MHRSD) - Opens in new tab. As of October 2023, over 200,000 migrant workers - Opens in new tab have been accredited since its launch. At US$50 per person, even if half of these workers – a very conservative estimate – had paid the fees out of pocket, that amounts to US$5 million in total, of which at least 65-70% goes into Saudi’s coffers. Migrants are effectively paying for access to the labour market, as the accreditation scheme offers them no tangible benefits beyond meeting entry requirements.
According to Kathmandu Post, recruitment agents alleged that there was an attempt to create a syndicate through this process.
Under the proposed system, Nepali workers would have been required to pay an additional Rs15,000 for certification, including $50 for a skills test and $50 for the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) assessment.
Saudi authorities had said workers without a valid skills certification would not be issued work visas.
The programme was expected to cover five categories of workers, including loading and unloading labourers, porters, handcart operators, and construction-related jobs. However, specific roles under the construction category had not been clearly defined.
Recruiters said the scheme was introduced unilaterally without coordination with the Nepali government and violated the spirit of the labour agreement between Nepal and Saudi Arabia.
Stakeholders in the employment migration process in Bangladesh and India that MRRORS had interviewed voiced similar concerns, and mainly that the certification seems to be a revenue generating exercise for the governments, while increasing the costs of migration for the workers.
Though the costs of the tests are uniform across origin countries, workers’ wages are only determined bilaterally, and are discriminatory based on nationality. The skills-specific referral wages for India, for instance, tend to be higher than what Bangladesh or Pakistan have established.
Takamol Holding partners with government and government-supported skills centres in origin countries. In India with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) - Opens in new tab, in Pakistan the National Vocational and Technical Training Commission - Opens in new tab (NVTTC), in Sri Lanka the Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission - Opens in new tab, and in Bangladesh the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training run Technical Training Centres (TTC) - Opens in new tab. And most recently, the Industrial Training Institute Nepal Pvt Ltd. The national partner gets a cut of the fees workers pay.
