Consultative Meeting: PM Dahal and Nepal’s Envoys on Labor Issues

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ today held a meeting with heads and representatives of Nepali diplomatic missions abroad, focusing on the labour migration issues and possible ways for addressing them.

In today’s meeting, diplomatic mission chiefs for 13 countries put their views on the labor migration issues and their probable solutions.

Secretary at the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security, Kewal Prasad Bhandari, gave his brief presentation that centered on labor migration issues, elucidating roles that diplomatic channels can play to mitigate these challenges.

The presentations highlighted various multi-dimensional aspects of labor migration including the current state of labour market and migration trends, the significance of remittance and its substantial impact, bilateral labour agreement and understanding, guideline on foreign employment demand attestation, the provision of shelter and support for migrants, labor permit issue,  management of local employees, organizational arrangements and status of labour  attachés, E-7 visa (specific activity) for South Korea, provision of Japan’s specified skilled workers, and archiving  of those labor migrants missing in the official records.

The presentation also sheds light on relief and rescue operations, as well as charitable efforts, the current status of legal defense mechanisms for labor migrants, labor relations and challenges, issues concerning domestic help and their working conditions, affiliation of migrants with the Social Security Fund, attestation of specified labor skills, training programs, and language proficiency,  maximum consultancy fees for labor migration consultants, official channels for the entry and regulation of remittance flows, travel arrangements facilitated by travel agencies,  possibilities for new labor destinations and expansion of the labor market and so on.

The report has included subjects ranging from issues of domestic workers to supply of workers as per the agreement between the governments of concerned countries, association with the social security fund, specialised labour, skills, training and test of language, service fees for counseling, bringing in remittance inflow through a formal channel, educational counseling, problems in the process of going for foreign employments, the potential of new labour destination and labour market and expected achievements and results.

The top 10 destinations for labour immigration for Nepali people are Qatar, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, South Korea, Oman, Japan and Rumania. Similarly, the concept paper has identified various problems facing Nepali migrant workers at foreign jobs and offered alternatives.

The interaction will discuss an array of subjects ranging from demand letter verification to cheating in foreign employment, problems facing workers at workplace, human trafficking, problems facing Nepali workers at foreign jobs without proper documentation, the situation and problem of the free visa and free ticket scheme, e-visa, problems of seasonable visa, the effectiveness of diplomatic missions, and the methods to make labour immigration safe, respected and credible.

Others present on the occasion were Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Purna Bahadur Khadka, Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security Sharad Singh Bhandari, Minister for Foreign Affairs Narayan Prakash Saud, political advisor to the Prime Minister Haribol Gajurel, secretary of the government, Ambassador of Nepal to Austria Bharat Gautam, Ambassador to Oman Dornath Aryal, Ambassador to Germany Ramkaji Khadka, Ambassador to Japan Durga Prasad Subedi, Ambassador to South Korea Jyoti Pyakurel, Ambassador to Malaysia Dilli Raj Paudel and Ambassador to Qatar Naresh Bikram Dhakal.

Similarly, Ambassador to Bahrain Tirtha Raj Wagle, Ambassador to Pakistan Tapas Adhikari, Ambassador to Kuwait Ghana Shyam Lamsal, Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates Tej Bahadur Chhetri and Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Nawaraj Subedi separately tabled their reports on the situation of Nepali migrant workers at foreign jobs and ways to be taken to bring changes in the situation.

PM Dahal is scheduled to inaugurate the interaction on Tuesday.