Yadav Raj Joshi

Mocking govt's plan to create equal number of employment. At a time, when the government is selling a dream of creating half a million jobs at home, the country is witnessing a trend of around half a million out flux in a year.

In the first six months of current fiscal year — between mid-July 2011 and mid-January 2012 — about four dozen countries hired 197,263 Nepalis, according to the Department of Foreign Employment. The migrant workers’ outflow would have easily crossed 200,000 mark, had there been no dispute in Saudi Arabia and Qatar’s jobs.

The data also revealed that the current trend, if continues, the country will see around half a million Nepalis outflow in search of greener pasture by the end of current fiscal year.Some 157,343 Nepalis had joined foreign jobs in the first six months of the last fiscal year, making a total of 354,716 by the end of last fiscal year.

Nepali workers are spread from Gulf to North and South America, Europe, South East Asia, Africa and to Australia, though Gulf countries hired almost half of the Nepali migrant workers, in the first half of the current fiscal year.

Gulf countries — Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman hired 146,410 Nepalis in the last six months. Qatar emerged as the largest job market for Nepalis hiring about 59,845, followed by Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait that provided jobs to 34,791; 33,571 and 11,503 Nepalis, respectively.

South-East Asia was ranked second in hiring Nepali workers. The region provided jobs to 47,172 Nepalis with Malaysia hiring the largest number at 47,044. Similarly, Hong Kong and Singapore hired 72 and 21 Nepalis, though through individual contracts.

The US and Canada hired 196 Nepalis – 31 by Canada and 165 by US, whereas England hired 58 Nepalis followed by Germany (46) Finland (23), France (12) and Ireland (3).

Israel — the most preferred destination for Nepali women migrant workers — hired some 570 Nepalis but most of them as agriculture labour.

Just three women got job as caregiver that reopened two months ago. Israel had banned Nepali caregivers since April 2009.

South Korea hired 912 Nepali workers. Of them, 245 have already reached Seoul in Individual contract. The destination hired 667 Nepalis under Employment Permit System (EPS) — a system of hiring through the governments channel. The destination is planning to hire about 15,000 Nepalis in 2012.

Afghanistan hired 525 Nepalis, while Brunei hired 15 and about 639 Nepalis reached Japan from various sources. Japan’s official recruiting process — Japan International Training Cooperation Organisation (JITCO) — hired two dozen Nepalis to work in industries.

Published on: 31 January 2012 | The Himalayan Times