The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Pema, 36, from Wangdue was one of the students who went on the Japan Learn and Earn program (LEP) through Bhutan Employment Overseas (BEO) after taking a Nu 600,000 loan from RICBL.
Of the around 700 students sent to Japan, around 73 were first sent at Nu 600,000 with the loan from RICBL and later it was hiked to Nu 700,000 for the rest with the loan from BDBL.
She was there in Japan from 2017 to 2020 and like many students she neither managed to learn Japanese nor earn enough, given that the whole program was flawed and designed to suck money out of students to enrich BEO and the language schools in Japan.
She said she earned just about enough to pay the fees there, and have a very substandard survival living and there was not enough money to pay the loan or send it back to her parents. Since she was working to make ends meet, she could not learn Japanese.
Because she left at a working age and wasted three years in Japan, she was considered too old for the available jobs in Bhutan, and so today she is unemployed with a son.
She came back in 2017 and till 2020 she paid Nu 300,000 of the Nu 600,000 loan.
However, she could not pay back the remainder Nu 300,000 and another Nu 100,000 in interest and penalties.
The RICBL, around a month ago, took her case to court, and she either has to pay Nu 400,000 or face jail time of an equivalent amount calculated at the minimum wage which would means years behind bars.
Pema, after her first court hearing, had to be taken to hospital with high blood pressure. Coming from a humble rural family and unemployed, she is at her wit’s end on how to pay back the money and she has slipped into depression.
Pema is not alone as many of the 700 students have not been able to pay back the principal loan given that they themselves were cheated and could not earn in Japan.
In August this year, a 31-year-old man, who had suffered personally and financially due to the Japan LEP program died by suicide in Thimphu.
Most of those who availed of the scheme also come from mainly humble families who are either children of lower-level government and private staff in urban areas, with a large number also coming from rural areas with their parents being farmers.
The loans were taken from RICBL and BDBL and with Financial Institutions keen to clear their Non-Performing Loans, many students and parents fear they will be next after Pema.
Kinley, a parent, said that the agent has assured students that they can graduate from the language school, and do Masters in Japan and also work two jobs at the same time which would be enough to pay the fees, rent, etc.
She said that the parents and students went for the program and the loan trusting the then Ministry of Labour and Human Resources which backed and promoted the program.
Tshering, 33, said she took a Nu 700,000 loan from BDBL in 2017 and was in Japan till 2019.
She said BEO had assured that the Nu 700,000 would also cover 1 year to 1 year 6 months language fees, but then they were asked to pay fees after 6 to 7 months.
Tshering said the agents even cheated them on the apartments as 6 to 7 were squeezed into a three-bedroom apartment which is forbidden in Japan, and they had to pay double the rent that is normally charged for such apartments.
She said the agent helped them find jobs in Japan but they soon realized that a part of their pay was being kept by the agent, without their knowledge.
Tshering owes the bank Nu 300,000 and the issue of her loan causes some tension with her husband.
Kinley, 46, a parent, said her child does not have any work or income and she herself is not well and they have no land or assets to pay back the loan.
Tsencho, 52, who is a single mother said she survived cancer and is diabetic with blood pressure, and her son who went for the program gets mentally disturbed when the talk of the loan comes up.
The parents group recently put up a petition to the Prime Minister’s Office to help with the loans since they had trusted the Japan LEP program due to government backing and endorsement, but the legal section of the PMO got back saying nothing can be done.
The Supreme Court on 12th February 2024 upheld the judgment of the High Court in the Japan LEP program where the owners of the BEO Tenzin Rigden and Jurmey Tshewang, were sentenced to 4 years and 6 months in jail for forging bank balance statements.
The students and parents say the above was a result of a criminal case based on investigation by the RBP, after parents complained there, but they say they have not been able to recover their money lost to the BEO. One of the options being looked at is a civil case.
The outcome of the Japan LEP program was three deaths, including a suicide, 2 paralysis cases, 30 TB cases due to poor diet and no rest, 2 mental breakdowns and many traumatized youths.
Based on an ACC investigation, the Thimphu District court on March 2023 convicted the former Labour DG for Omission amounting to an abuse of functions under the ACC Act section 59(1).
The Bhutanese had done a series of investigative stories to expose the various facets of the case.
