KATHMANDU: Nepali workers seeking to go abroad for employment under the old labor agreement in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia, the main destination countries of Nepali workers, will soon benefit by the new labor agreement, the government said.

According to Minister for Labor, Employment and Social Security Krishna Kumar Shrestha, the Ministry has prepared Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) and labor agreements with half a dozen of labor destination countries and is also looking for new destinations.

Speaking at the ministry-wise discussion ongoing in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, he informed that the government has recently renewed labor pacts with old labor destination countries and is preparing to sign labor agreements and MoUs with four new destination countries.

The government is in search of destination countries for secured employment, Minister Shrestha said.

Nepal has signed labor MoUs and deals with 10 countries in 17 years.

According to the Ministry, new labor agreements with Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and Qatar are being prepared.

For the first time as a new destination country, the UK is set to sign a draft labor agreement next week. Minister Shrestha shared that the Ministry is preparing a labor agreement this year to find labor markets in UK’s construction sector, Maldives, Seychelles and Israel.

As in case of Korea and Israel, the government is working out to sign Government-to-Government pacts with UK and other countries to make the foreign employment safe, dignified, systematic and attractive.

The government has already started homework of Nepali labor agreements with labor destinations, including Maldives, France, Seychelles and Qatar.

At present, Nepalis can go to 178 countries with individual labor permit, while 111 countries have institutional labor permit.