Nepalese workers charged extra Rs14,200 by UAE for police report attestation

KATHMANDU: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has started charging Nepalese migrant workers an additional fee of Rs14,200 per person under the pretext of police report attestation, triggering strong objections from manpower agencies and prompting diplomatic engagement by the Nepal government.

The additional charge was introduced after the Gen Z movement of Bhadra 23 and 24, following which the UAE cited security concerns and made police report attestation mandatory for Nepalese workers travelling on work visas. Until recently, Nepalese workers did not have to pay any such fee.

According to manpower agencies, the UAE is collecting 351.08 dirhams per worker, equivalent to around Rs14,200. This includes 46 dirhams for VFS courier services for document attestation, 300 dirhams for photo certification and billing, and 5.08 dirhams as a payment gateway fee. Though broken into multiple headings, the total burden is being borne directly by migrant workers.

After briefly suspending visas following the Gen Z movement, the UAE resumed issuance with tighter conditions. While visit visas were subjected to multiple criteria, workers travelling on employment visas were required to submit police reports verified through additional layers of authentication.

Previously, police reports authenticated by the Consular Service Department under Nepal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs were considered sufficient. However, the UAE has now made it mandatory for these already-certified reports to undergo further verification through its own authorities. Only after this additional attestation does the visa process move forward.

Meghnath Bhurtel, immediate past general secretary of the Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies and chairman of Nilkamal Group of Companies, said visas are not processed until the documents return after UAE-side attestation. He said this has added both cost and delay to the migration process.

Manpower agencies have already submitted memorandums to the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, demanding the removal of the additional fee. However, no concrete response has been received so far.

On average, around 100 Nepalese workers apply daily for foreign employment in the UAE. At that rate, approximately Rs1.42 million is being collected every day in the name of police report attestation. Last year alone, 177,000 Nepalese workers travelled to the UAE. Based on that figure, more than Rs2.51 billion could flow out of Nepal annually if the current practice continues.

Although visa restrictions are expected to reduce the number of outgoing workers this year, manpower entrepreneurs estimate that more than Rs2 billion could still be transferred abroad under the new attestation requirement.

The Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security said it formally raised the issue with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as soon as the matter became public. Labour Ministry spokesperson Pitambar Ghimire said diplomatic engagement was initiated immediately.

“We wrote to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for diplomatic intervention as soon as we learned about the additional charges,” Ghimire said, adding that no formal feedback has been received yet.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also instructed Nepal’s embassy in the UAE to seek clarification. The Nepali Embassy in Abu Dhabi has urged UAE authorities to withdraw the additional charges, but officials there have yet to provide a clear response.

Labour migration expert Dr Jeevan Baniya, co-director at Social Science Baha, said unilateral imposition of such fees is unjustifiable. He argued that introducing multiple conditions for workers travelling on employment visas under the guise of security concerns is fundamentally flawed.

“Such requirements at the stage of labour approval are completely wrong. No country should be allowed to impose arbitrary fees like this,” Baniya said. He stressed that any new measures should be agreed upon through bilateral understanding rather than imposed unilaterally.

The UAE had earlier tightened visit visa rules for Nepalese nationals citing security risks. However, extending similar restrictions to labour migrants has made the process more difficult, limiting workers’ access to overseas employment.

Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies has formally protested against the added financial burden. Association secretary Kunchha Dorje Dimdong said the UAE’s demand for re-attestation of QR-coded police reports issued by the Nepal government has directly increased workers’ costs.

He noted that police reports authenticated through Nepal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs as of December 4, 2025, were previously accepted. The UAE later imposed the additional requirement without informing the Nepal government, forcing double attestation of a single official document.

Dimdong said this has created a situation where workers must spend large sums even before their visas are secured, increasing financial risk and exploitation. The association has urged the government to launch high-level diplomatic talks to ensure full recognition of Nepal-issued police reports and to stop the outflow of workers’ money under what it calls an unjustified process.