Illegal Fees in Gulf Healthcare Recruitment: What Indian Nurses Face
Placement fees charged to Indian nurses by Gulf recruitment agents are illegal under Indian law. Most workers pay them anyway. Here is the law, how agents get around it, and what to do.
Rs 1,20,000 charged by a recruiter for a UAE nursing placement. Illegal under Indian law. The hospital had no idea.
Recruitment agents charging Indian healthcare workers - nurses, paramedics, lab technicians, physiotherapists - placement fees of Rs 60,000 to Rs 1,80,000 operate across Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and UP. The practice is a criminal offence under Indian law. It continues because most workers do not know the law applies to them, most hospitals do not ask their agencies about it, and enforcement capacity has not kept pace with the scale.
What Indian Law Says
The Emigration Act, 1983 (as amended), and its implementing Recruiting Agents (RA) Rules, prohibit any RLA-licensed recruitment agency from charging a placement fee to the candidate for any category of employment abroad. This applies to all workers, including healthcare professionals.
The permitted charges an RA can collect from a candidate are limited to:
- GAMCA medical examination fee (paid to the GAMCA-approved centre, not the agent)
- Emigration clearance fee (government-mandated, paid to eMigrate portal)
- Attestation fees for documents (receipted, matching government schedules)
- Air ticket cost - only if the employer does not cover it, and only the actual cost with proof
Everything else - processing fee, visa arrangement fee, file opening charge, Gulf connection fee, placement fee - is illegal when charged by an RLA-licensed agent. Agents operating without an RLA licence are illegal in their entirety.
How Agents Charge Despite the Law
Three mechanisms allow fee charging to continue:
1. Disguising the Fee
Fees are described as document preparation or test coaching rather than placement fees. Receipts, when issued, list non-prohibited services. The candidate receives paperwork but no clear statement of what was actually paid and why.
2. Exploiting Unregistered Sub-Agents
RLA-licensed agencies maintain a registered front. The actual fee collection happens through unlicensed sub-agents or community contacts who have no RLA registration and are invisible to enforcement. The licensed agent denies knowledge; the sub-agent has no registration to revoke.
3. Targeting Candidates Who Cannot Afford to Lose the Offer
A nurse who has spent 6 months completing DataFlow, 3 months processing their DHA licence, and has given notice to their current hospital is not in a position to walk away from an offer. Agents know this. The fee demand comes late - after verification is complete and the visa is ready - when the cost of refusal is highest.
What Hospitals and Candidates Can Both Do
The broader verification process - checking agent registration, employer legitimacy, and contract terms before accepting any Gulf offer - is covered step by step in our 5 Essential Verification Steps for Indian Professionals. The steps below focus specifically on the illegal fee issue.
For candidates:
- Verify your recruiter's RLA registration at eMigrate portal before signing anything. An unregistered agent has no legal basis to represent you.
- Refuse any fee beyond the four permitted categories listed above. Do so in writing - send an email or WhatsApp message stating the fee request and your refusal.
- If pressured: file a complaint with the Protector of Emigrants in your state. The POE can revoke RLA licences and initiate criminal proceedings. The complaint form is at eMigrate portal.
- Report to MEA Madad Portal if the agent is based abroad or the fee was collected post-departure.
For hospitals (Gulf-side employers):
Healthcare facilities that use Indian manpower supply agencies can contractually prohibit candidate fee charging. A clause in the supply agreement requiring the agency to certify that no fees have been charged to the candidate - with a penalty for breach - shifts liability and creates a deterrent. Several UAE and Saudi hospital groups have added this clause since 2023 after MEA advisories.
The practice does not end because the law is inadequate. It continues because the people paying the fees do not yet know the law is on their side.
skilledupIndia is RLA-registered - every employer listing on the platform is verified before going live, and candidate placement is zero-fee. Browse verified Gulf healthcare employer listings on skilledupIndia.
