Government does not have contracts with half a dozen states where Nepalis are working

Making foreign employment transparent, responsible and accountable is one of major concern of the budget, according to the fiscal policy for the current fiscal year.

It has also aimed at building strong regulating mechanism and labour contract with major destinations. Labour contracts with major destination will be top priority to the government in 2011-12, it read.

Currently, the government do not have labour contracts with half a dozen destinations where thousands of Nepalis are working. “There is no labour contract with Malaysia — the second largets job market after Qatar — since 2003 is the ignorance of pervious governments, according to National Association of Foreign Employment Agencies in Nepal — the umbrella organisation of over 700 outsourcing agencies — that has welcomed the budget for giving emphasis in labour contracts with major destinations with reservation in other issues.

“The budget aims to provide skill trainings to 21,000 overseas job seekers but it is tip in the ocean, “ president of the association Som Lal Bataju said, adding that it will not bring significant change in the sector.

Like pervious governments, the government is not positive to outsourcing sector, he claimed.

Just Rs 610 million is allocated for Ministry of Labour and Transport Management that handles issues of the over three million people abroad, he said, adding that only Rs 1.5 million is allocated for foreign employment promotion, which is not enough. The budget has also aimed to send skill manpower in foreign jobs providing trainings to youth. Skill trainings will be provided to youth according to the demands in major job markets, the budget read.

Major job markets of the Nepali youths are Qatar, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia where over two million Nepalis are working.

The government has accepted the challenge to fight against fraud in foreign employment on the backdrops of rising fraud and human trafficking in the name of abroad job. The current fiscal year witnessed 1,012 foreign employment frauds or cheating while numbers of fraud was 655 in 2009-10.

“It is because of weak monitoring mechanism of the government,” he said.

However, he warned that the association would not tolerate baseless blames to outsourcers in the name of fraud. “Investigating capacity of Department of Foreign Employment should be developed first,” he said.

Budget has promised to safeguard Nepali women migrant workers. Foreign Employment Promotion Board has granted right of job orientation for them.

Published on: 18 July 2011 | The Himalayan Times