The government is preparing to allow 13 Nepali nationals to work in Iraq for the first time nine years after Nepalis were prohibited from working in the war-torn country.

The Ministry of Labour and Employment is planning to issue work approvals after a meeting of stakeholders last Monday recommended for reconsideration on the ban. The preparation to send Nepalis to Iraq comes after the Nepal government received requests from the South Korean embassy in Baghdad.

Buddhi Bahadur Khadka, MoLE spokesperson, said the ministry agreed to issue work permits to 13 workers considering the fact that the embassy itself has made the request. “This is a different case since the demand is made by another sovereign nation,” said Khadka.

The meeting attended by representative from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment Promotion Board, Ministry of Home Affairs and the DoFE, among other stakeholders, unanimously agreed to recommend the MoLE to grant work permits to those workers considering their special case. The officials concluded that sending workers to the embassy of a sovereign country is not necessarily sending them to Iraq . “But this doesn’t mean we have made any decision to endorse other similar cases or lift the ban on migration to Iraq ,” said Divash Acharya, DoFE director, who attended the meeting.

The workers will have to go through other departmental procedures after the secretary-level meeting of the MoLE approves their recommendation soon.

In a letter addressed to the DoFE a few weeks ago, the SKorean embassy has sought work permits to Deuman Tamang, Durga Lal Shrestha, Chandra Tamang, Jas Bahadur Tamang, Kesh Bahadur Ranabhat, Ram Bahadur Gurung, Yuba Raj Ghosai, Netra Bahadur Karki, Dilli Khadka, Sundar Tamang, Sawari Lal Khawash, Lok Bahadur Sharki and Sobar Tamang. The letter signed by Jun Byoung Park, a Korean embassy official in Baghdad, states that these workers had worked in the embassy earlier as security guards.

“They (workers) are sponsored by the Korean embassy for their entry visa to re-enter Iraq and subsequently they will have work permit visa stamped on their passports upon arrival in Baghdad,” read the document.

The workers had returned to Nepal on work leave. According to Deuman Tamang, they were paid between US$ 800 and 2,500 depending on the nature of their work.

Nepal had imposed the ban calling Iraq as an unsafe work destination after 12 Nepalis were killed there in 2004. Although the ban was temporarily lifted in 2010 after the American Central Command that used to control foreign employment and security affairs in Iraq directed Nepali workers to return home by August 8 the same year, the government has not issued work approvals to anyone.

Published on: 8 April 2013 | The Kathmandu Post