Nepal, Feb. 13 -- The Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security (MoLESS) has launched a crackdown on irregularities in health examinations for workers heading abroad. A special task force is monitoring medical institutions accused of issuing fake reports, certifying sick individuals as healthy, or charging fees beyond prescribed limits. Although complaints about such malpractice have circulated for years, the government had struggled to act-until now.

MoLESS spokesperson Pitambar Ghimire said the monitoring is being led by two under-secretaries from the ministry, with police support. "This process has been ongoing for a few days, and by Tuesday we had inspected 16 health institutions. Some documents have been seized, and a detai...