KATHMANDU: The Nepali Congress has urged the government to prepare an action plan for bringing all the Nepalis abroad who want to return home.

The Central Migrants Relations Committee of the main opposition party, through a press release today, urged the government to chalk out a work plan for repatriating all Nepalis who want to return home without specifying the number, stating it was the right of every Nepali in whichever corner of the world to return home.

The government had recently released data that it was bringing home around 25 thousand Nepalis in various countries.

The Nepali Congress has also urged the government to test all the Nepali citizens repatriated home from abroad for COVID-19 through the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method and keep them in quarantine or make other arrangements as determined by the World Health Organization.

It said it was of the view that the Nepali citizens who are abroad and who want to return home should be repatriated to Nepal since the start of the coronavirus pandemic itself.

NC central member and Department chief, Govinda Bhattarai stated in the press release that only bringing the Nepalis home from abroad was not alone an achievement but now the time has come to work by making immediate and long-term plans.

The Nepali Congress has drawn the attention of the government towards the fact that a large number of Nepalis might be in a situation to return home in the coming days in view of the uncertainty regarding when the coronavirus pandemic is going to come to an end.

It also stated that now the time has come to implement the point mentioned by the government in its policy and programs for the fiscal year 2020/21 that 500 thousand Nepalis would be brought home from abroad and engaged in employment.

The main opposition party has also called for announcing forthwith a special program for providing employment to the foreign-returnee Nepalis. RSS