KATHMANDU: In the last 26 years, around 5.5 million Nepalese youth migrated from Nepal in search of foreign employment.
Government of Nepal has been issuing ‘authorization letter’ to Nepalese workers (both to individuals as well as institutions) with a view to facilitating their migration to foreign lands. Foreign Employment Act, 1985 safeguards the interests of millions of Nepalese workers leaving the motherland in search of employment outside in foreign countries.
Though the Act came into force in 1985, the formal data collection of migrant workers by Ministry of Labor and Transport, Government of Nepal began only in 1993.
The official report reveals that 45,052 youths applied for ‘work authorization letter’ for working on foreign soils in the very first financial year when data collection of migrant Nepalese workers started in 1993/94. As of now, the number of Nepalese workers seeking authorization letters from the Department of Labor, for working abroad has crossed 5.5 million. In the last 26 years, a leap jump of 300 percent in numbers of migrant Nepalese workers seeking authorization to work abroad has taken place.
The number is increasing every passing year. The decade-long insurgency forced several eligible youths to flee abroad to earn their livelihood. Later when the peace process was pressed into action, the government managed the whole process to safeguard the interest of migrant Nepalese workers. Those who are returning Nepal from abroad prefer to stay back since the government is providing all the incentives and financial support to start their own ‘work’ here.
The ‘Prime Minister Employment Scheme’ is working on imparting skills and financial support to promote entrepreneurship within the country to reduce the rate of migration to foreign countries in search of employment. This is how the domestic economy will also get a boost and dependence on remittance will go down. The scheme augurs well for the country as Nepalese youth will not get exploited by ruthless employers in the Middle-East and East Asian countries.
80 percent Nepalese youth in eight Gulf countries and Malaysia
The Department of Foreign Employment has shown a successive rise in numbers of Nepalese workers going abroad for foreign employment since financial year 2006/07. Just this year the current financial year more than one hundred thousand Nepalese workers are up with their documents ready and are flying abroad, says the Foreign Employment Department. “Eighty percent Nepalese migrant workers are working in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan and Malaysia,” according to the Department. The government began to issue ‘free visa with ticket’ since 2015 to those who are ‘flying’ for foreign employment resulting in a stupendous rise of more than 2 million new applicants.
However, the number of deaths and grievous injuries of migrant Nepalese workers during the work hours and outside is the sad tale to tell. Every year such stories come to us, which underscore the problems and challenges the Nepalese youth are facing on foreign soils.
Both men and women from Nepal have been reporting the abuse of different kinds both physical and psychological in nature that goes to the extent of killings, suicides, rapes and disappearances.
More than 40,000 women from Nepal opted for foreign employment last year through legal routes recorded in the Department of Foreign Employment. In the current financial year, more than 30,000 women have already gone abroad in 10 months. The government has already banned Nepalese women going abroad since 2016 to work as domestic servants due to reported violence on them but this has not deterred them to take illegal routes to sneak out of country to land on foreign soils.
No less than 200 women are leaving Nepal for working abroad daily. The government needs to devise a plan and policy to stop such illegal migration of Nepalese men and women to foreign countries as it is landing them in prison and making them victims of physical and psychological exploitation.
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