The government plans to keep records of Nepali workers returning from foreign employment from the next fiscal year. The Ministry of Finance has assured the Department of Foreign Employment that it would allocate funds in the new budget for this task.

According to the department, 2.03 million Nepalis (including 32,427 women) have left the country to work overseas since the fiscal year 1993-94 till mid-June 2011. However, there are no records of returning migrant workers and how many times they have left the country for foreign employment abroad.

A survey report of the World Bank stated that 77 percent of the returnees were interested in going back to their foreign jobs. According to the department, around 60 percent of the departing workers are repeat migrant workers.

“We have been promised Rs 1 million to set up an ‘arrival desk’ at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA),” said Kul Prasad Regmi, an officer at the Department of Foreign Employment. He added that the ministry had also pledged to provide additional funds at a later stage.

The department had asked for a budget allocation of Rs 2 million to establish the arrival desk to maintain scientific data of returning migrant workers. Currently, a labour desk at TIA under the department has been keeping records of outbound workers based on the work permits issued by the department.

The department had planned to have the existing labour desk maintain records of returning workers too. However, the budget allocation has allowed it to establish a separate desk. “Even though the budget is small, we can at least start this good work,” said Lab Babu Kawari, director of the department.

The proposed arrival desk will mainly collect data of returning workers and gather their feedback about the work they did abroad. Kawari said that they had been holding talks with the TIA authorities and Immigration Department to set up the arrival desk. He added that the records of returning workers would give a clear picture about the trend of workers retuning home on a daily or monthly basis.

Published on: 13 July 2011 | The Kathmandu Post