Migrant workers-targeted app launched

Issara Nepal, a non-governmental organization, has launched an app, ‘Ujjwal Sapana’ targeting migrant workers.

The app was co-launched by joint-secretary of the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security Rajib Pokharel and the executive director of the Issara Institute amid a function here on Tuesday.

The app will provide up to date information related to migrant workers, labour law and rights, manpower companies, employers, and service providers, it has been said. It is available in Nepali, Burmese and Khamer.

At the event, joint secretary Pokharel said foreign employment was a compulsion for Nepali people.

“We have to depend on foreign employments until we create jobs within the country. So, there is a need to properly manage foreign employment,” he said.

All workers should be brought onboard the social security fund, and employment opportunities be created within the country where skills learnt in foreign lands should be utilised, he was of the view.

Stating that the Ministry is at work to formulate the Foreign Employment Act that is worker friendly, he said, a five-year strategy to this effect has been in place. Nepal sent around 25 percent people for foreign employment on an annual basis, said immigration expert Keshab Basyal.

General Secretary of the South Asian Regional Trade Union Council Laxman Basnet stressed the need for the app to have the government’s standards on foreign employments.

Likewise, President of the Nepal Trade Union Congress Pushkar Acharya called for ending unhealthy competition among manpower agencies while Chairperson of the General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions Binod Shrestha demanded transparency in foreign employment.